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FACTS   AND    COMMENTS 


HERBERT  SPENCERS  WORKS. 


Synthetic  Philosophy: 

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D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY,  NEW  YORK. 


Facts  and  Comments 


BY 

HERBERT  SPENCER 


NEW     Y  ORK 
D.  APPLETON   AND    COMPANY 

1902 


Copyright,  1902 
By    D.   APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 


GIFT 


Published .  May,,  1902 


PREFACE. 


Duking  the  years  spent  in  writing  various  sys- 
tematic works,  there  have  from  time  to  time  arisen 
ideas  not  fitted  for  incorporation  in  them.  Many  of 
these  have  found  places  in  articles  published  in  re- 
views, and  are  now  collected  together  in  the  three 
volumes  of  my  essays.  But  there  remain  a  number 
which  have  not  yet  found  expression:  some  of  them 
relatively  trivial,  some  of  more  interest,  and  some 
which  I  think  are  important. 

I  have  felt  reluctant  to  let  these  pass  unrecorded, 
and  hence  during  the  last  two  years,  at  intervals  now 
long  and  now  short,  have  set  them  down  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages.  Possibly  to  a  second  edition  I  shall 
make  some  small  additions,  but,  be  this  as  it  may,  the 
volume  herewith  issued  I  can  say  with  certainty  will 

be  my  last. 

H.  S. 

Brighton,  March,  1902. 


M754410 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

A  Business  Principle 1 

Some  Regrets  ." 6 

19 
A  Problem ya 

A  Few  Americanisms 16 

Presence  of  Mind ^ 

The  Corruption  of  Music  ^ 26 

Spontaneous  Reform 29 

L^Peeling  versus  Intellect 35 

The  Purpose  of  Art ^4 

Some  Questions •        .49 

The  Origin  of  Music 52 

Developed  Music 61 

Estimates  of  Men 79 

State  Education 82 

The  Closing  Hours .        .  94 

Style 97 

Style  Continued •        •        •        .106 

Meyerbeer 11~' 

The  Pursuit  of  Prettiness H6 

Patriotism 1^2 

Some  Light  on  Use-Inheritance 128 

Party  Government ci?-' 

Exaggerations  and  Mis-statements 145 

Imperialism  and  Slavery 157 

vii 


vm  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Re-barb  arization 172 

Regimentation 189 

Weather  Forecasts 201 

The  Regressive  Multiplication  of  Causes        .        .        .  210 

Sanitation  in  Theory  and  Practice 216 

Gymnastics 225 

Euthanasia 231- 

The  Reform  of  Company-Law 234 

Some  Musical  Heresies 245 

Distinguished  Dissenters 258 

Barbaric  Art 265 

Vaccination 270 

Perverted  History 274 

♦-What  should  the  Sceptic  say  to  Believers?   .        .        .  280" 

Ultimate  Questions 288 


FACTS  AND   COMMENTS, 


A  BUSINESS-PKINCIPLE. 

Among  the  many  cases  of  malpractices  by  solicit- 
ors recently  brought  to  light,  one  is  especially  strik- 
ing as  seeming  at  variance  with  all  probability.  To 
suppose  that  a  solicitor  who  has  been  President  of 
The  Incorporated  Law  Society  and  also  chairman  of 
its  Disciplinary  Committee  could  be  guilty  of  divert- 
ing to  his  own  use  large  sums  belonging  to  clients, 
seems  contrary  to  common  sense.  "  Surely  here  is 
a  man  who  may  be  implicitly  trusted,"  would  be  the 
remark  made  to  any  one  who  doubted  the  wisdom 
of  giving  him  unchecked  administrative  power.  As 
we  see,  however,  the  scepticism  would  have  been 
justified. 

Not  unfrequently  I  have  been  astonished  at  the 
confidence  with  which  men  deliver  their  securities 
and  the  control  of  important  transactions  to  their 
legal  agents.  "  Everybody  does  it,"  each  thinks  to 
himself,  "  and  I  suppose  I  may  safely  do  it."  This 
unlimited  trust  seems  the  more  remarkable  after 
considering  the  utter  absence  of  trust  shown  by  the 


2  A  BUSINESS-PRINCIPLE. 

various  bMeds  and  documents  left  in  a  lawyer's  hands. 
Each  of  these  amounts  to  an  elaborate  profession  of 
distrust  : fin .  ,ihose  with  whom  business-transactions 
have  been,  or  are,  or  will  be,  carried  on.  Clauses 
are  inserted  to  shut  out  all  possibilities  of  evasion  or 
perversion,  and  the  whole  is  so  witnessed  as  to  insure 
that  the  specified  claims  and  liabilities  can  be  legally 
proved.  Yet  all  these  precautions  having  been 
taken,  the  security  supposed  to  be  gained  is  aban- 
doned. Everything  is  placed  in  the  legal  agent's 
hands,  trusting  that  he  will  act  honestly;  and  this 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  repute  alike  of 
law  and  of  lawyers  is  not  of  the  highest!  Surely  a 
surprising  inconsistency! 

Many  years  ago,  when  on  the  managing  commit- 
tee of  a  club,  I  disgusted  the  secretary  by  remarking 
that  in  matters  of  administration,  as  in  matters  of 
business  at  large,  the  maxim  should  be: — Do  not 
suppose  things  are  going  right  till  it  is  proved  they 
are  going  wrong,  but  rather  suppose  they  are  going 
wrong  till  it  is  proved  they  are  going  right.  This 
was  a  hard  saying  for  an  official  to  hear;  but  I  hold 
it  to  be  a  saying  worthy  of  recognition  by  those  who 
are  concerned  with  affairs,  private  or  public.  While 
ignoring  this  rule  of  conduct  in  the  many  cases 
where  it  is  most  important  to  follow  it,  the  mass  of 
people  follow  it  tacitly,  if  not  avowedly,  in  respect 
of  ordinary  transactions.     What  is  the  meaning  of 


A  BUSINESS-PRINCIPLE.  3 

taking  a  receipt,  if  not  an  implied  belief  in  the  need 
for  excluding  the  possibility  of  going  wrong?  What 
are  the  detailed  specifications  of  every  contract  and 
the  naming  of  penalties  in  case  of  non-performance? 
What  is  the  requiring  of  security  when  engaging  an 
employe?  Or  what  are  the  many  clauses  in  an  Act 
of  Parliament  which  are  inserted  to  prevent  evasion? 
These  are  all  recognitions  of  the  truth  that  things 
will  go  wrong  unless  they  are  made  to  go  right.  And 
has  not  every  one  daily  proof  of  this  in  the  briberies 
of  servants  by  tradesmen,  the  illicit  commissions  of 
agents,  the  favouritism  shown  to  certain  Government 
contractors,  the  purchasing  of  titled  names  to 
strengthen  the  directing  boards  of  new  schemes? 
Yet  in  certain  spheres  confidence  continues  undimin- 
ished and  scepticism  is  reprobated.  See  for  example 
the  history  of  bank-failures,  repeated  generation 
after  generation,  nearly  all  resulting  from  this  habit 
of  supposing  that  things  are  going  right  because  it 
has  not  been  shown  that  they  are  going  wrong. 
Though  managers  who  have  embezzled,  directors 
who  have  drawn  on  the  funds  of  the  bank  for  their 
own  uses,  and  boards  who  have  launched  into  wild 
speculations,  have  time  after  time  shown  the  proprie- 
taries the  need  for  such  measures  as  shall  bring  to 
light  misdoings  before  they  have  reached  great  pro- 
portions, no  safeguards  are  sought.  Almost  incredi- 
ble is  the  way  in  which  auditors  are  usually  ap- 


4:  A  BUSINESS-PRINCIPLE. 

pointed  to  banking  companies  and  to  companies  at 
large.  Manifestly  the  institution  of  an  audit  was 
suggested  by  the  experience  that  managers  or  man- 
aging bodies  could  not  be  implicitly  trusted  to  make 
exact  statements  of  the  finances,  but  needed  check- 
ing by  an  independent  person.  The  need  having 
been  recognized,  one  might  have  supposed  that  care 
would  be  taken  that  the  check  should  continue  effi- 
cient. But  we  see  no  care  taken.  Year  after  year 
reports  of  company-meetings  state  that  auditors  re- 
tire but  are  eligible  for  re-election,  and  they  are 
forthwith  re-elected;  so  that  if  there  should  be  any- 
thing wrong  in  their  own  doings,  or  in  their  rela- 
tions with  the  managing  body,  there  is  no  likelihood 
of  disclosure.  The  truth  that  for  a  system  of  au- 
dit to  be  efficient  the  auditors  should  be  frequently 
changed,  passes  unregarded.  Doubtless  inconve- 
nience will  be  alleged  as  a  reason  for  not  changing; 
but  inconvenience  attends  every  safeguard.  You  can- 
not be  insured  against  fire  or  accident  for  nothing; 
and  you  cannot  be  insured  against  dishonesty  without 
paying. 

While  taught,  and  professing  to  believe,  that  the 
human  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things  and  desper- 
ately wicked,  men  in  cases  like  these  tacitly  assume 
that  the  human  heart  is  not  at  all  wicked  and  is  quite 
trustworthy.  The  rational  belief  lies  between  these 
extremes.    It  should  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  with 


A  BUSINESS-PRINCIPLE.  5 

a  type  of  human  nature  such,  as  now  exists,  going 
wrong  is  certain  to  occur  in  course  of  time  if  there 
are  left  any  openings  for  going  wrong,  and  that  the 
only  prudent  course  is  to  be  ever  seeking  out  the 
-openings  and  stopping  them  up. 


SOME    KEGEETS. 

In  a  paragraph  quoted  with  applause  from  Mr. 
Ruskin,  I  met  the  statement  that  "  all  other  efforts  in 
education  are  futile  till  you  have  taught  your  people 
to  love  fields,  birds,  and  flowers."  Merely  noting 
that  in  the  absence  of  a  predisposition  no  amount  of 
teaching  will  produce  such  a  love,  I  make  the  obvious 
remark  that  life  as  a  whole  is  not  to  be  included  in 
a  love  of  Nature ;  and  I  point  the  remark  by  asking 
what  must  be  thought  of  Dr.  Johnson?  Almost  de- 
void though  he  was  of  the  sense  of  natural  beauty, 
few  will  dare  to  contend  that  his  education  was  futile. 
But  we  have  in  this  assertion  one  of  those  multi- 
tudinous random  exaggerations  characterizing  Mr. 
Ruskin' s  writings. 

In  reasonable  measure  the  sentiment  he  expresses 
is  shared  in  by  most  people,  and  by  me  is  shared  in 
very  largely.  Often  when  among  the  Scotch  moun- 
tains I  have  pleased  myself  with  the  thought  that 
their  sides  can  never  be  brought  under  the  plough: 
here  at  least  Nature  must  ever  remain  unsubdued. 
Though  subordination  to  human  wants  is  sometimes 
suggested  by  the  faint  tinklings  of  distant  sheep- 


SOME  REGRETS.  7 

bells,  or  by  some  deer  on  the  sky-line,  yet  these  do  not 
deduct  from,  but  rather  add  to,  the  poetry  of  the 
scene.  In  such  places  one  may  forget  for  a  while  the 
prosaic  aspects  of  civilization. 

I  detest  that  conception  of  social  progress  which 
presents  as  its  aim,  increase  of  population,  growth  of 
wealth,  spread  of  commerce.  In  the  politico-eco- 
nomic ideal  of  human  existence  there  is  contemplated 
quantity  only  and  not  quality.  Instead  of  an  im- 
mense amount  of  life  of  low  type  I  would  far  sooner 
see  half  the  amount  of  life  of  a  high  type.  A  pros- 
perity which  is  exhibited  in  Board-of-Trade  tables 
year  by  year  increasing  their  totals,  is  to  a  large  ex- 
tent not  a  prosperity  but  an  adversity.  Increase  in 
the  swarms  of  people  whose  existence  is  subordinated 
to  material  development  is  rather  to  be  lamented  than 
to  be  rejoiced  over.  We  assume  that  our  form  of 
social  life  under  which,  speaking  generally,  men  toil 
to-day  that  they  may  gain  the  means  of  toiling  to- 
morrow, is  a  satisfactory  form,  and  profess  ourselves 
anxious  to  spread  it  all  over  the  world;  while  we 
speak  with  reprobation  of  the  relatively  easy  and  con- 
tented lives  passed  by  many  of  the  peoples  we  call 
uncivilized.  But  the  ideal  we  cherish  is  a  transitory 
one — appropriate,  perhaps,  to  a  phase  of  human  de- 
velopment during  which  the  passing  generations  are 
sacrificed  in  the  process  of  making  easier  the  lives  of 
future  generations.     Intrinsically,  a  state  in  which 


8  SOME  REGRETS. 

our  advance  is  measured  by  spread  of  manufactures 
and  a  concomitant  production  of  such  regions  as  the 
"  Black  Country,"  looking  as  though  it  had  lately 
been  invaded  by  an  army  of  chimney-sweeps,  is  a 
state  to  be  emerged  from  as  quickly  as  may  be.  It 
is  a  state  which  in  sundry  respects  compares  ill  with 
the  past,  and  is  far  from  that  which  we  may  hope 
will  be  attained  in  the  future. 

One  of  its  evil  results  is  the  threatened  sub- 
mergence of  those  still-remaining  traces  of  a  life 
which,  though  ruder  and  simpler,  left  men  some 
leisure  in  wmich  to  live. 

This  over-running  of  the  old  by  the  new  strikes 
me  afresh  with  every  summer's -sojourn  in  the  coun- 
try, and  deepens  my  regret.  An  American  lady,  after 
staying  for  some  time  in  England,  expressed  to  me 
the  opinion  that  a  country  without  ruined  castles  and 
abbeys  is  not  worth  living  in.  I  fully  understood  her 
feeling  and  to  a  considerable  extent  sympathized  with 
her.  Though  intensely  modern  and  having  but  small 
respect  for  ancient  ideas  and  institutions,  I  have 
great  pleasure  in  contemplating  the  remains  be- 
queathed by  the  times  that  are  gone.  Not  that  the 
interest  is  in  any  degree  an  historical  one.  A  guide 
who  begins  his  daily  repeated  series  of  facts  or  fic- 
tions about  the  ancient  place  he  is  showing  me  over, 
quickly  has  his  story  cut  short.  I  do  not  care  to  be 
distracted  by  it  from  the  impression  of  antiquity  and 


SOME  REGRETS.  9 

from  enjoyment  of  the  half -hidden  beauties  of  the  old 
walls  and  arches  made  more  picturesque  by  decay. 
And  so  is  it  with  the  old  rural  life  that  is  rapidly 
passing  away  as  towns  and  town-habits  and  town- 
ideas  invade  the  country. 

As  in  numerous  parts  of  the  Earth  appropriated 
by  us  the  native  races  are  being  "  improved  "  out  of 
existence,  so  at  home  the  progress  of  "  improvement  " 
is  yearly  leaving  less  and  less  of  the  things  which 
made  the  country  attractive.  Under  the  western  end 
of  the  South  Downs,  where  I  have  taken  up  my  abode 
this  season,  daily  drives  show  me  beauties  future  gen- 
erations will  not  see.  The  vast  hedges  overrun  with 
clematis,  and  bryony,  and  wild  hop,  occupying  as 
they  do  great  breadths  and  casting  wide  shadows,  are 
not  tolerated  by  the  advanced  agriculturist.  It  is  the 
same  with  the  broad  strips  of  greensward  and  wild 
flowers  bordering  the  by-roads,  no  less  than  with  the 
tortuous  lanes,  such  as  those  around  Woolbeding  and 
Iping,  where  the  track,  deep  down  below  the  surface, 
is  over-arched  by  foliage  here  and  there  pierced  by 
sun-gleams.  All  of  them  seem  fated  to  go,  and  to 
leave  only  post-and-rail  or  wire  fences,  or  dwarf, 
closely-cropped  hedges.  The  cottage  roofs  of  thatch 
are  being  everywhere  replaced  by  slate  or  tile  roofs; 
and  there  is  a  gradual  disappearance  of  half-wooden 
houses.  Another  trait  of  the  country,  familiar  in  my 
early  days,  is  disappearing.  Where  a  brook  crossed 
2 


10  SOME  REGRETS. 

the  road,  a  couple  of  planks  and  a  handrail  served  to 
carry  over  pedestrians,  while  horses,  carts,  and  car- 
riages had  to  go  through  the  water :  an  inconvenience 
only  in  times  of  flood.  But  now  County  Councils 
with  members  severally  anxious  to  gain  popularity 
by  proposing  something  which  "  gives  work,"  will 
soon  replace  all  these  by  brick  or  stone  bridges.  Only 
here  and  there,  where  a  path  through  the  fields  is  car- 
ried over  a  small  stream  by  a  foot-bridge,  will  it  still 
be  possible  to  lean  over  the  handrail  and  watch  the 
minnows  as  they  slowly  come  out  of  their  hiding- 
places  into  which  your  shadow  had  frightened  them. 

Various  usages,  too,  which  as  seen  in  recollection 
are  picturesque,  are  disappearing.  Nowadays  it  is  a 
rare  thing  to  find  gleaners;  and  in  many  parts  of 
the  country  the  gathering  of  mushrooms  is  forbid- 
den. No  longer  when  passing  a  barn  on  a  winter's 
day  may  one  hear  the  alternating  thuds  of  the  flails, 
and  no  longer  may  one  be  awakened  on  a  bright  morn- 
ing in  June  by  the  sharpening  of  scythes — a  sound 
so  disagreeable  in  itself  but  made  so  delightful  by  its 
associations. 

While  in  some  respects  we  may  envy  posterity,  we 
may  in  one  respect  pity  them.  This  disappearance 
of  remnants  and  traces  of  earlier  forms  of  life,  intrin- 
sically picturesque  as  well  as  picturesque  by  associa- 
tion, will  deprive  them  of  much  poetry  which  now 
relieves  the  prose  of  life.    Everywhere  it  is  the  same. 


SOME  REGRETS.  11 

Egypt,  made  like  Europe  by  railways,  steamboats, 
and  hotels  scattered  along  the  Nile,  will  soon  cease 
to  excite  the  feelings  proper  to  its  antiquity.  Mod- 
ernized Rome  is  losing  all  likeness  to  Rome  as  it  was 
even'  fifty  years  ago.  And  here  around  us  the  ro- 
mance of  the  past  is  being  extinguished  by  the  dull 
realities  of  the  present.  Of  course  we  shall  bequeath 
many  remains  of  existing  civilization ;  but  it  may  well 
be  doubted  whether  they  will  be  as  interesting  as 
those  which  old  times  have  bequeathed  to  us. 


A  PEOBLEM. 

People  devoid  of  musical  perceptions  have  some 
compensations:  one  of  them  being  that  they  are  not 
persecuted  by  tunes  which  have  obtained  lodgments 
in  consciousness  and  cannot  for  a  time  be  expelled. 
Most  if  not  all  who  have  ordinarily  good  ears  are 
liable  to  be  annoyed  by  these  invading  melodies — 
often  those  vulgar  ones  originating  in  music-halls  and 
everywhere  repeated  by  street-pianos.  One  remedy 
for  the  evil,  which  is  temporarily  if  not  permanently 
efficient,  is  that  of  voluntarily  taking  up  in  thought 
some  other  melody:  the  result  being  that  as  con- 
sciousness will  not  contain  both,  the  original  intruder 
is  for  a  time  extruded.  There  is  some  danger,  how- 
ever, that  the  invited  occupant  will  get  possession  in- 
stead.    This,  however,  by  the  way. 

My  reason  for  referring  to  this  annoyance  is  that 
the  associated  facts  throw  a  side-light  on  the  dispute 
concerning  the  Ego.  Metaphysical  discussions  often 
postulate  the  innate  knowledge  of  a  distinct,  coherent, 
ever-present  personality.  With  some  it  is  an  axiom 
that  along  with  the  consciousness  of  objective  exist- 
ence there  is  indissolubly  joined  the  consciousness  of 
12 


A  PROBLEM.  13 

subjective  existence — the  idea  of  Self  is  inseparable 
from  the  idea  of  not-Self.  This  dogma  appears  at 
first  sight  unassailable.  But  when  the  consciousness 
of  Self  is  critically  examined,  difficulties  present 
themselves ;  and,  among  them,  difficulties  of  the  class 
I  have  just  exemplified.  For  it  is  not  always  possible 
to  say  of  certain  portions  of  consciousness  whether 
they  are  to  be  included  in  the  Ego  or  not.  In  the  in- 
stance named  the  reason  for  doubt  is  conspicuous; 
and  it  is  especially  conspicuous  when,  as  in  my  own 
case  and  in  the  cases  of  others  I  have  cross-ques- 
tioned, the  intruding  melody  persists  during  sleep. 
Repeatedly  I  have  observed  on  awaking  that  it  was 
the  first  thing  of  which  I  was  conscious.  What  then 
is  the  mode  of  existence  of  this  organized  set  of  tones, 
so  coherent  that  when  partly  repeated  it  insists  on 
completing  itself,  and  then  after  an  instant  recom- 
mences? In  what  way  does  this  rebellious  portion  of 
consciousness  stand  related  to  the  rest?  We  can  hard- 
ly include  it  in  what  we  call  the  Ego,  seeing  that  the 
Ego  continually  tries  to  repress  it  and  fails.  And 
yet  if  it  is  not  a  part  of  the  Ego,  what  is  it? 

There  are  numerous  facts  of  kindred  nature. 
When  I  look  at  my  hand  the  impression  received  un- 
questionably forms  part  of  my  consciousness — 
whether  to  be  considered  as  a  passing  phase  of  the 
Ego  itself,  or  as  an  effect  wrought  on  it,  is  a  question 
we  may  leave  undiscussed.    But  now  near  the  margin 


14  A  PROBLEM. 

of  the  large  visual  area  which  takes  in  multitudinous 
objects  in  the  room,  there  is  on  the  one  side  a  vague 
impression  of  the  fireplace,  of  which  I  may  or  may 
not  think,  and  on  the  other  side,  of  the  window,  the 
idea  of  which  as  a  window  may  or  may  not  enter  my 
mind.  There  is  also  an  outermost  fringe  of  the  visual 
area  from  which  there  come  to  me  impressions  that 
are  meaningless  unless  I  turn  my  eyes  towards  their 
source:  even  if  I  think  of  them  I  cannot,  without 
moving,  tell  their  natures.  In  what  relations,  then, 
do  these  various  indefinite  impressions  stand  to  the 
Ego  ?  I  cannot  even  say  that  they  form  parts  of  con- 
sciousness in  the  ordinary  sense,  since,  while  observ- 
ing things  immediately  before  me,  I  am  scarcely 
aware  that  these  remote  ones  are  there,  though  they 
are  unquestionably  included  in  the  aggregate  filling 
my  mental  field.  Still  less  can  I  say  how  these  vague 
outliers  stand  related  to  that  part  of  consciousness 
which  I  regard  as  my  mental  Self.  Like  questions 
may  be  raised  respecting  the  desires  and  emotions, 
faint  or  strong,  which  often  continue  to  intrude  spite 
of  endeavours  to  keep  them  out;  and  which  thus 
seem  to  be  modes  of  consciousness  in  antagonism  with 
the  consciousness  thought  of  as  constituting  the  Ego. 
But  the  most  distinct  and  striking  example  of  this 
detached  antagonistic  portion  of  consciousness  is  that 
with  which  I  sot  out— the  invading  melody.  For  its 
tones  form  an  organized  and  integrated  cluster  of 


A  PROBLEM.  15 

states  of  consciousness  quite  independent  of  such  part 
of  consciousness  as  I  call  myself,  and  which  is  in  con- 
flict with  it  and  continually  triumphs  over  it. 

From  the  physio-psychological  point  of  view  the 
interpretation  of  this  phenomenon  is  not  difficult;  but 
how  the  pure  metaphysician  is  to  solve  it  I  cannot  see. 


A  FEW  AMERICANISMS. 

When  to  protest  against  new  words  or  new  uses 
of  old  words,  and  when  to  accept  them,  is  not  easy 
to  decide.  If  purists  had  ruled  from  the  beginning, 
language  would  never  have  progressed.  Without 
hesitation,  however,  we  may  condemn  perversions  of 
words,  and  may  frown  on  the  pedantry  which  adopts 
long  words  where  short  ones  would  be  as  good  or 
better. 

Some  misapplications  of  words  that  are  common 
in  America  have  often  vexed  me — one  especially,  the 
use  of  the  word  "  claim  "  instead  of  "  say  "  or  "  as- 
sert "  or  "  affirm  "  or  "  allege  ";  e.  g. — "  I  claim  that 
he  knew  all  about  it  before  he  laid  the  bet."  This 
abuse  has  of  late,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  made  its  appear- 
ance in  English  journals  of  repute,  even  in  The  Times. 
A  monthly  magazine  furnishes  me  with  a  double  ex- 
ample. An  English  critic  and  the  American  writer 
he  criticizes,  both  pervert  the  word  in  the  space  of 
three  sentences.  Speaking  of  the  Cubans  the  one 
says : — "  The  claim  that  they  are  not  capable  of  gov- 
erning themselves  has  not  been  established  in  the 
writer's  experience";  and  the  other  says: — "It  is 
not  intended  in  this  description  of  affairs  to  claim 
16 


A  FEW  AMERICANISMS.  17 

that  the  Cubans  are  without  faults."  This  misuse  is 
inexcusable  because  there  are  sundry  words  serving 
rightly  to  express  the  intended  meaning,  while  the 
word  employed  does  not  express  it.  A  thing  claimed 
is  a  thing  which  may  be  possessed;  but  one  who 
claims  that  A  behaved  better  than  B,  implies  posses- 
sion in  no  sense  either  actual  or  potential. 

Business  men  in  America  often  commit  another 
linguistic  outrage — not  indeed  of  the  same  kind  but 
of  a  kind  to  be  strongly  reprobated.  Here  are  exam- 
ples. "  The  company  have  leased  the  new  line  and 
will  operate  it."  "  The  cost  of  operating  the  factory 
has  been  so-and-so."  Everywhere  these  words  replace 
the  words  "  work  "  and  "  working  " — words  which, 
though  open  to  objection,  have  not  the  vice  of  mere 
pedantry.  And  now  this  abuse,  too,  is  creeping  in 
here.  I  have  just  met  with  the  sentence : — "  Auto- 
matic couplers  can  be  operated  with  ease." 

A  corruption  no  less  reprehensible,  common  in 
American  speech,  is  the  use  of  "  on  "  in  place  of 
"  in  " : — "  I  met  him  on  Broadway  " ;  "I  found  him 
on  the  cars."  Here  we  have  a  deliberate  abolition 
of  a  convenient  distinction  which  in  good  English 
is  uniformly  observed.  The  word  "  in  "  implies  in- 
closure  more  or  less  decided — "  in  a  box,"  "  in  a  car- 
riage." The  word  "  on  "  negatives  inclosure — im- 
plies that  the  object  is  not  shut  up,  and,  further,  that 
there  are  no  restraining  boundaries  near  it.     The  dis- 


18  A  FEW  AMERICANISMS. 

tinction  is  marked  with  precision  in  two  such  phrases 
as — "  in  a  field  "  and  "  on  a  common  " :  the  circum- 
stances being  in  all  respects  alike  save  in  the  presence 
of  inclosing  fences  in  the  one  case  and  their  absence 
in  the  other  case.  The  disuse  of  this  convenient  dis- 
tinction is  a  retrograde  step,  for  development  of  lan- 
guage, as  of  thought,  is  a  progress  in  establishing  dis- 
criminations— a  making  of  existing  words  more  precise 
and  introducing  others  to  mark  further  differences. 

Men  ought  to  regard  their  language  as  an  in- 
heritance to  be  conserved,  and  improved  so  far  as  that 
is  possible,  and  ought  not  to  degrade  it  by  reversion 
to  lower  types.  It  should  be  a  matter  of  conscience 
not  to  misuse  words;  it  should- also  be  a  matter  of 
conscience  to  resist  misuse  of  them.  Especially 
should  our  own  language  be  thus  guarded.  If,  as 
several  unbiassed  foreign  judges  hold,  the  English 
language  will  be,  and  ought  to  be,  the  universal  lan- 
guage, it  becomes  the  more  a  duty  to  mankind  to 
check  bad  habits  of  speech. 

Perhaps  a  little  might  be  done  if  in  return  for 
criticisms  on  Americanisms  like  those  above  passed, 
Americans  were  systematically  to  expose  deteriora- 
tions in  the  language  as  spoken  here.  They  might, 
for  example,  mercilessly  ridicule  that  vulgar  misuse 
of  the  word  "  awfully  "  which  has  now  continued  for 
more  than  a  generation.  There  is  plenty  of  scope  for 
denouncing  of  kindred  perversions. 


PRESENCE   OF  MIND. 

While  most  faculties  admit  of  increase  by  edu- 
cation, there  are  some  universally  recognized  as  in- 
nate, and  but  little  capable  of  change.  We  may  in- 
clude Presence  of  Mind  among  these.  Still,  by  cer- 
tain disciplines  a  great  faculty  of  this  kind  may  be 
made  greater  and  a  small  one  may  be  to  some  degree 
augmented. 

A  generation  ago  the  autobiography  of  a  well- 
known  conjurer  or  prestidigitateur — it  may  have  been 
Houdin — contained  an  instructive  passage,  quoted  in 
a  review  which  I  saw.  It  was  to  the  effect  that  some- 
times the  autobiographer  and  his  son,  when  going 
along  a  street,  competed  with  one  another  in  naming 
all  the  objects  they  saw  in  a  shop-window  while  pass- 
ing it — an  intentional  exercise  of  the  ability  to  per- 
ceive many  things  at  a  glance.  A  high  degree  of 
such  an  ability  was  obviously  needful  for  one  who 
deluded  others  bv  his  sleight-of-hand  tricks.  Miffht 
not  the  power  of  rapid  and  complete  observation  be 
increased  in  children  by  devices  nearly  akin  to  games? 
Suppose  a  blackboard  in  front  of  which  can  be  drawn 
at  a  variable  speed  a  black  linen  screen,  containing  a 

10 


20  PRESENCE  OF  MIND. 

square  opening  through  which  marks  on  the  board  are 
visible  for  a  moment  while  the  opening  passes  them. 
The  teacher  might  begin  with,  say,  three  conspicuous 
spots  irregularly  placed  on  the  board  while  standing 
with  his  back  to  the  class  so  as  to  hide  them.  Then, 
having  drawn  the  opaque  part  of  the  screen  across 
them,  he,  when  his  pupils  are  ready,  lets  a  spring  pull 
back  the  screen  so  that  these  spots  become  visible, 
say  for  a  second  or  two  seconds;  and  the  pupils  there- 
upon place  dots  on  their  slates  as  nearly  as  they  can 
in  like  relative  positions:  comparisons  presently 
showing  which  has  approached  nearest  to  the  original. 
The  relative  positions  of  the  spots  may  of  course  be 
varied  in  any  way,  and  their  number  may  be  increased 
one  at  a  time,  to  four,  five,  six.  Three  lines  may 
next  be  taken,  unlike  in  their  lengths,  directions,  and 
relative  positions,  and  analogous  complications  may 
follow.  Thence  the  transition  may  be  to  figures:  say 
a  triangle,  a  circle,  and  a  straight  line,  variously 
placed  with  regard  to  one  another;  and  so  on 
through  higher  combinations:  the  length  of  the  ex- 
posure being  decreased  as  the  power  of  rapid  percep- 
tion becomes  greater.  More  useful,  however,  because 
more  interesting,  are  exercises  of  this  nature  yielded 
by  indoor  games — some  of  those  played  by  children 
and  some  of  those  played  by  young  people.  There 
are  card-games  success  in  which  depends  on  quickly 
seeing  the  right  place  for  disposal  of  a  card:  all  eyes 


PRESENCE  OF  MIND.  21 

being  turned  on  each  player  in  turn  to  detect  instant- 
ly any  error  of  distribution.  Of  course  while  such 
lessons  and  games  increase  the  observational  powers 
of  all,  they  leave  to  the  last  great  differences  among 
them.  These  are  entailed  by  the  physiological  limit 
implied  by  what  astronomers  and  others  call  "  the 
personal  equation."  Between  the  instant  when  a  cer- 
tain thing  is  seen  and  the  making  of  a  mark  or  signal, 
there  is  an  interval  which  is  greater  in  one  person 
than  in  another:  the  cause  being  that  the  speed  of 
the  nervous  discharge  varies.  Of  course  the  number 
of  things  observable  at  once  is  governed  by  this.  It 
should  be  added  that  apart  from  the  advantage  gained 
by  greater  quickness  of  perception  there  is  the  more 
general  advantage  of  raised  intensity  of  attention. 
On  the  ability  to  concentrate  the  intellectual  powers 
upon  anything  before  them,  success  of  many  kinds 
depends. 

But  now  supposing  presence  of  mind  is  to  some 
extent  made  greater  by  increasing  the  ability  to  see 
instantly  all  the  circumstances  of  a  case,  there  re- 
mains to  be  increased  the  equally  important  factor — 
fertility  of  resource.  Here  little  can  be  done.  Pos- 
sibly by  questions  asked  a,  propos  of  an  imagined  dis- 
aster, to  be  answered  in,  say,  five  seconds,  some  ex- 
ercise might  be  given  to  the  appropriate  powers  of 
thought  which  ordinarily  are  never  exercised.  A 
lady  has  set  her  dress  on  fire: — what  would  you  do? 


22  PRESENCE  OF  MIND. 

"  Kim  for  water/'  would  be  one  answer.  "  Fetch  a 
blanket  and  wrap  it  round  her,"  might  be  another. 
"  Tear  down  the  window  curtain  if  it  is  woollen,  and 
roll  her  in  it/'  might  be  a  third.  And  perhaps  a 
fourth  would  be — "  Pull  her  down  backwards  and 
put  the  hearth-rug  over  her."  Again,  suppose  a  run- 
away horse,  no  longer  controllable  by  the  driver: — 
what  shall  be  done?  "  Jump  out,"  will  in  some  cases 
be  suggested.  Another  might  say — "  If  the  road  is 
not  full  of  vehicles  let  the'  horse  gallop  till  he  is 
tired."  And  a  third  answer  may  be — "  Lie  down  in 
the  bottom  of  the  carriage."  Once  more  imagine 
you  are  endeavouring  to  save  a  man  who  is  drown- 
ing:— how  will  you  proceed?  One  reply  is — "  Give 
him  a  hand  and  swim  with  the  free  arm."  Another 
may  say — "  Seize  him  by  the  collar  and  use  the  other 
arm  for  swimming."  And  a  third  suggestion  will  be 
— "  Get  behind  his  back  to  avoid  grappling  and  push 
him  before  you  as  you  swim."  In  each  case  the  sub- 
sequent conversation  would  disclose  reasons  why 
some  methods  were  bad,  others  better,  and  another 
the  best.  Naturally  the  incidents  of  life  furnish 
numerous  kindred  problems,  and  the  ability  quickly 
to  hit  on  the  best  course  to  be  followed  may  to  some 
slight  extent  be  augmented.  At  the  same  time  re- 
peated exercises  of  this  kind  will  stock  the  memory 
with  ways  of  proceeding  which  may  serve  when  ac- 
tual accidents  occur. 


PRESENCE   OF  MIND.  23 

But  as  there  is  a  constitutional  limit  to  acquire- 
ment of  quickness  of  observation,  so  there  is  a  con- 
stitutional limit  to  acquirement  of  that  resourceful 
faculty  needed  to  meet  emergencies.  The  normal 
working  of  an  animal  organism,  human  or  other,  im- 
plies that  the  part  or  parts  called  on  to  perform  extra 
duty  shall  immediately  be  supplied  with  extra  blood: 
a  muscle  at  rest  suddenly  excited  to  action  must 
forthwith  have  its  arteries  better  filled,  and  the  stom- 
ach after  food  has  been  taken  must  have  its  blood- 
vessels more  fully  charged  than  when  it  is  doing  noth- 
ing. So  with  the  brain.  To  yield  the  quick  and  vivid 
thought  and  feeling  required  for  coping  with  disaster, 
actual  or  impending,  the  cerebral  circulation  must  be 
exalted,  and  by  a  well-toned  vascular  system  this  need 
is  fulfilled.  But  here  comes  in  a  frequent  interfer- 
ence. Fainting  as  a  result  of  violent  emotion  is  a 
common  experience.  We  see  in  it  one  of  those  auto- 
matic arrangements  for  warding  off  organic  disasters 
of  which  there  are  many.  For  violent  emotion  im- 
plies that  parts  of  the  brain  have  suddenly  become 
surcharged  with  blood:  a  concomitant  being  that 
some  of  the  over-distended  arterioles  are  in  danger 
of  giving  way  under  the  pressure — a  mischief  which 
must  be  serious  and  may  be  fatal.  Under  these  con- 
ditions there  comes  into  play,  through  the  action  of 
the  vagus-nerve,  a  sudden  reining  in  of  the  heart:  it 
ceases  to  act  and  the  pressure  on  the  blood-vessels, 


24:  PRESENCE  OF  MIND. 

thereupon  diminished,  ceases  to  be  dangerous.  But 
now  between  the  ordinary  mental  state  accompany- 
ing the  ordinary  cerebral  circulation,  and  this  ex- 
treme state  in  which  arrest  of  mental  action  results 
from  arrest  of  cerebral  circulation,  there  are  all  gra- 
dations; that  is,  there  are  all  degrees  in  the  reining  in 
of  the  heart,  short  of  absolute  arrest.  But  from 
diminished  heart-power  it  results  that  instead  of  the 
appropriate  exaltation  of  mental  force  there  is  a 
greater  or  less  decrease  of  it.  The  needful  supply 
of  blood  to  the  whole  of  the  brain  being  partially 
withheld,  the  faculties  are  partially  thrown  out  of 
gear.  The  thoughts  become  confused  and  there  is 
something  like  a  temporary  paralysis  of  intellect.  Es- 
pecially does  this  happen  in  nervous  subjects  and 
those  who,  by  over-stress,  have  permanently  injured 
the  vascular  system  and  the  nervous  centres.  In  such 
this  failure  of  blood-supply  in  presence  of  a  dan- 
ger or  catastrophe,  physical  or  moral,  produces  some- 
thing like  a  mental  chaos — a  derangement  of  ideas 
and  impulses  such  that  everything  goes  wrong,  and 
either  nothing  is  done  or  something  just  opposite  to 
that  which  should  be  done. 

Depending  thus  in  chief  measure  on  constitution, 
natural  or  modified  by  disorder,  presence  of  mind  can- 
not be  much  increased  by  culture.  Still  something 
may  be  done.  Practice  in  rapidity  of  observation  and 
fertility  of  resource  must  benefit  all,  whatever  na- 


PRESENCE  OF  MIND.  25 

tures  they  may  have ;  and  where  emergencies  are  not 
of  an  alarming  kind  may  increase  the  presence  of 
mind  even  of  the  nervous.  Though  little  is  to  be  ex- 
pected it  is  well  to  attempt  that  little.  Remembering 
that  occasionally  presence  of  mind  means  salvation  to 
self  or  others  from  evils  that  are  serious,  if  not  fatal, 
it  will  be  inferred  that  discipline  or  exercise  tending 
even  in  a  small  degree  to  make  it  greater,  might  fitly 
take  the  place  of  many  worthless  lessons  which  form 
large  parts  of  current  education. 


THE  COKKUPTION   OF  MUSIC. 

Music-performers  and  teachers  of  music  are  cor- 
rupters of  music.  This  is  a  paradox  most  people  will 
think  extremely  absurd.    I  am  about  to  justify  it. 

Without  going  back  for  proof  to  past  days,  when 
from  time  to  time  a  prima  donna  forced  a  composer 
to  introduce  passages  enabling  her  to  display  her 
vocal  agility,  I  will  limit  myself  to  the  present.  Jus- 
tifications meet  me  continually.  Here,  for  instance, 
is  an  extract  from  a  recent  musical  criticism,  in 
which,  after  remarking  that  the  sonata  in  question  is 
not  a  good  one,  the  writer  goes  on — 

"  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the  attraction  which  this 
work  possesses  for  first-rate  pianists;  there  are  difficulties  in  it 
to  be  conquered." 

And  here  is  another: — 

"  Miss 's  vocal  method  is  not  beyond  criticism,  but  as 

she  succeeds  in  emitting  sounds  at  a  height  not  usually  at- 
tained, the  public  is  quite  satisfied." 

Hamlet,  in  his  address  to  the  players,  reprobated 
those  who  "  split  the  ears  of  the  groundlings  who, 
for  the  most  part,  are  capable  of  nothing  but  inex- 
plicable dumb  shows  and  noise."  Changing  time, 
place,  and  terms,  it  may  be  said  that  three-fourths 
26 


THE  CORRUPTION  OF  MUSIC.  27 

of  musical  audiences  at  the  present  day  are  in  the 
same  relative  position.  They  appreciate  but  little  the 
musical  ideas  and  feelings  of  the  composer,  or  the 
effective  rending  of- them;  but  an  extraordinary  feat 
of  vocalization,  or  a  display  of  marvellous  gymnas- 
tics on  the  violin,  brings  a  round  of  applause.  And 
then,  unhappily,  as  the  members  of  the  orchestra  ap- 
plaud— applaud  because  they  know  how  great  are  the 
difficulties  overcome — the  audience  is  encouraged  in 
the  belief  that  this  is  music,  and  clap  lest  they  should 
be  thought  persons  of  no  taste.  In  this  way  per- 
formers, desiring  less  to  render  faithfully  the  mean- 
ings of  the  pieces  they  play  than  to  exhibit  their  pow- 
ers of  execution,  vitiate  the  music  and  the  tastes  of 
their  hearers.  Direct  evidence  has  come  to  me  from 
two  lady-pianists,  both  of  whom  played  at  concerts 
pieces  which  they  chose  not  because  they  were  beau- 
tiful but  because  they  were  of  kinds  making  it  possi- 
ble to  show  brilliancy  of  performance :  a  toccata  was 
the  programme-name  of  one.  The  elder  of  these 
ladies,  who  was  a  teacher  of  music,  admitted  that  she 
hoped  to  show  parents  what  a  good  teacher  she  must 
be  to  be  able  to  play  in  that  style ! 

As  is  implied  by  these  confessions,  the  mischief 
originates  in  the  performer's  pre-occupation  with  self, 
for  this  largely  excludes  occupation  with  the  com- 
poser's thoughts.  The  dominant  feeling  is  not  love 
of  the  music  rendered  but  desire  for  the  applause 


28  THE  CORRUPTION  OF  MUSIC. 

which  brilliant  rendering  will  bring.  In  the  cases  of 
celebrated  performers  to  whom  crowds  of  hearers 
flock,  this  is  almost  a  necessity.  Many  years  ago, 
when  coming  away  from  a  concert  given  by  a  cele- 
brated Russian  pianist,  I  remarked — "  Too  little 
music  and  too  much  Rubinstein." 

Nor  is  this  all.  There  is  a  more  widely  diffused 
and  less  obtrusive  mischief.  A  dominant  trait  of 
brilliant  musical  execution  is  rapidity.  A  Saltarello 
or  a  Tarantelle  is  easy  enough,  provided  it  be  played 
slowly.  The  skill  is  shown  in  playing  it  with  great 
speed ;  and  teachers  incite  their  pupils  to  achieve  this 
great  speed.  The  result  is  gradually  to  raise  the 
standard  of  time,  and  the  conception  of  what  is  the 
appropriate  time  is  everywhere  being  changed  in  the 
direction  of  acceleration.  This  affects  not  pieces  of 
display  only  but  pieces  of  genuine  music.  So  much 
is  this  the  case  that  habitually  when  ladies  have 
played  to  me  I  have  had  to  check  them — "  Not  so 
fast,  not  so  fast !  "  the  rate  chosen  being  usually  such 
as  to  destroy  the  sentiment. 

In  brief,  this  vitiation  is  one  of  the  indirect  re- 
sults of  the  aim  on  the  part  of  professionals  not  to 
render  most  perfectly  the  ideas  of  the  composer,  but 
so  to  play  as  to  increase  their  own  earnings. 


SPONTANEOUS  REFORM. 

Elsewhere  I  have  illustrated  the  curious  truth 
that  while  an  evil  is  very  great  it  attracts  little  or  no 
attention;  that  when,  from  one  or  other  cause,  it  is 
mitigated,  recognition  of  it  brings  efforts  to  decrease 
it;  and  that  when  it  has  much  diminished,  there 
comes  a  demand  that  strong  measures  shall  be  taken 
for  its  extinction:  natural  means  having  done  so 
much,  a  peremptory  call  for  artificial  means  arises. 

One  of  the  instances  I  named  was  the  immense 
decline  in  drunkenness  which  has  taken  place  since 
the  18th  century,  followed,  during  recent  times,  by  a 
loud  advocacy  of  legislation  for  suppressing  it.  The 
occasion  for  recalling  this  instance  has  been  the  dis- 
covery of  some  evidence  showing  how  extreme  were 
the  excesses  of  our  great-great-grandfathers.  In  one 
of  a  series  of  diocesan  histories  on  the  shelves  of  a 
country  house,  I  found  some  extracts  from  the  diary 
of  a  Thomas  Turner,  a  mercer,  &c.  in  a  Sussex  vil- 
lage. His  entries  show  him  to  have  been  a  reader  of 
good  literature  and  a  religious  man.  The  compiler 
says  of  him — 

"  When  he  has  not  got  too  drunk  on  Saturday  evenings  he 
goes  to  church  on  Sunday.     He  always  makes  some  criticism 

29 


30  SPONTANEOUS  REFORM. 

on  the  sermon  .  .  .  Bad  as  he  was,  however,  in  regard  to  in- 
temperance, he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  much  worse  than 
most  of  his  neighbours.  Whether  they  met  for  business  or  for 
pleasure  "  the  ordinary  result  was  that  "  the  company  broke  up 
in  a  state  of  intoxication." 

Here  are  some  of  Mr.  Turner's  confessions : — 

"  April  21,  1756.  Went  to  the  audit,  and  came  home 
drunk  .  .  .  Nov.  25.  The  curate  of  Laughton  came  to  the 
shop  .  .  .  and  also  stayed  in  the  afternoon  till  he  got  in  liquor, 
and  being  so  complaisant  as  to  keep  him  company  I  was  quite 
drunk.  A  party  of  15  people,  including  the  vicar  of  the  parish, 
Mr.  Porter,  and  his  wife,  meet  at  four  in  the  afternoon.  After 
supper  .  .  .  '  drinking  all  the  time  as  fast  as  it  could  be  well 
poured  down.'  About  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  he  manages 
to  get  home  'without  even  tumbling.'  His  wife  is  brought 
back  two  hours  later."  And  then,  at  the  instigation  of  Mrs. 
Porter,  the  vicar's  wife,  the  carouse  is"  resumed  next  morning. 
On  Sunday  '"we  had  as  good  a  sermon  as  I  ever  heard  Mr. 
Porter  preach,  it  being  against  swearing.'"  Only  a  few 
days  afterwards  the  same  party  of  people  met  at  Mr.  Porter's. 
l<  '  We  continued,'  he  says,  '  drinking  like  horses,  and  singing 
till  many  of  us  were  very  drunk.'  " 

One  further  extract  shows  in  an  instructive  manner 
the  social  sanction,  or  something  more,  which  these 
usages  had.  Making  note  of  an  invitation  he  has  re- 
ceived, the  diarist  writes: — 

"  '  If  I  go  I  must  drink  just  as  they  please,  or  otherwise  I 
shall  be  called  a  poor,  singular  fellow.  If  I  stay  at  home  I 
shall  be  stigmatized  with  the  name  of  being  a  poor,  proud,  ill- 
natured  wretch.'  ...  So  he  resolves  to  go  .  .  .  '  Before  I 
came  away  I  think  I  may  say  there  was  not  one  sober  person 
in  the  company.' " 

Another  diarist,  a  Mr.  Walter  Gane,  schoolmaster, 
makes  similar  confessions;  and  other  details  given 


SPONTANEOUS  REFORM.  31 

show  that  throughout  society  at  large  this  demorali- 
zation everywhere  ran.  Credibility  is  thus  given  to 
a  passage  contained  in  the  Tour  to  the  Hebrides, 
which,  in  the  absence  of  this  verifying  evidence, 
would  seem  incredible. 

"  Dr.  Johnson  observed  that  our  drinking  less  than  our 
ancestors  was  owing  to  the  change  from  ale  to  wine.  '  I  re- 
member, '  said  he,  '  when  all  the  decent  people  in  Lichfield  got 
drunk  every  night,  and  were  not  the  worse  thought  of.'  " 

Largely  as  we  may  discount  this  statement,  we  must 
conclude  that  the  general  inebriety  was  astoundingly 
great. 

What  has  produced  the  transformation  which  has 
since  taken  place?  Not  legislation,  not  stern  repres- 
sion, not  coercion.  The  improvement  has  slowly 
arisen,  along  with  other  social  improvements,  from 
natural  causes.  The  vis  medicatrix  naturae  has  been 
in  operation.  But  this  large  fact  and  other  large 
facts  having  like  implications  are  ignored  by  our  agi- 
tators. They  cannot  be  made  to  recognize  the  pro- 
cess of  evolution  resulting  from  men's  daily  activities, 
though  facts  forced  on  them  from  morning  till  night 
show  this  in  myriadfold  ways.  The  houses  they  live 
in,  their  furniture,  clothes,  fuel,  food — all  are 
brought  into  existence  by  the  spontaneous  efforts  of 
citizens  supplying  one  another's  wants.  The  pastures 
and  cornfields  they  travel  through,  cover  areas  origi- 
nally moor  and  bog,  which  have  been  transformed  by 
individual  enterprise.     The  roads,  the  railways,  the 


32  SPONTANEOUS  REFORM. 

trains,  the  telegraphs,  are  products  of  combined  ex- 
ertions prompted  by  desires  for  profit  and  mainte- 
nance. The  villages  and  towns  they  pass  exhibit  the 
accretions  due  to  private  actions.  The  districts  de- 
voted to  one  or  other  manufacture  have  been  so  de- 
voted by  men  who  were  simply  seeking  incomes  to 
live  upon.  The  enormous  distributing  organization 
with  its  vast  warehouses  and  retail  shops  lining  the 
streets,  carrying  everywhere  innumerable  kinds  of 
commodities,  has  arisen  without  the  planning  of  any- 
one. Market  towns,  large  and  small,  have  without 
forethought  become  places  of  periodic  exchanges; 
while  exchanges  of  higher  and  larger  kinds  have  es- 
tablished themselves  in  London,  where,  from  hour  to 
hour,  you  may  feel  the  pulse  of  the  world.  So,  too,  by 
spontaneous  co-operation  has  grown  up  that  immense 
mercantile  marine,  sailing  and  steaming,  which  takes 
men  everywhere  and  brings  goods  from  all  places. 
And  no  less  are  we  indebted  to  the  united  doings  of 
private  individuals  for  that  network  of  submarine 
telegraphs  by  which  there  is  now  established  some- 
thing like  a  universal  consciousness.  All  these  things 
are  non-governmental.  If  we  ask  how  arose  the  sci- 
ence which  guided  the  development  of  them,  we  find 
its  origin  to  have  been  non-governmental.  If  we  ask 
whence  came  all  the  multitudinous  implied  inven- 
tions, the  reply  is  that  their  origin,  too,  was  non-gov- 
ernmental.    Of  the  Press,  daily,  weekly,  monthly, 


SPONTANEOUS  REFORM.  33 

we  still  have  to  say  it  is  non-governmental.  It  is  so 
with  the  great  torrent  of  books  continually  issuing, 
as  well  as  with  the  arts — music,  painting,  sculpture, 
in  their  various  developments — and  with  the  amuse- 
ments, filling  hours  of  relaxation.  This  vast  social 
organization,  the  life  of  which  we  severally  aid  and 
which  makes  our  lives  possible  by  satisfying  our 
wants,  is  just  as  much  a  naturally-developed  product 
as  is  the  language  by  which  the  wants  are  communi- 
cated. No  State-authority,  no  king  or  council,  made 
the  one  any  more  than  the  other.  The  ridiculous 
Carlylean  theory  of  the  Great  Man  and  his  achieve- 
ments, absolutely  ignores  this  genesis  of  social  struc- 
tures and  functions  which  has  been  going  on  through 
the  ages.  The  deeds  of  the  ruler  who  modifies  the 
actions  of  his  generation,  it  confounds  with  the 
evolution  of  the  great  body-politic  itself,  of  which 
those  actions  are  but  incidents.  It  is  as  though  a 
child,  seeing  for  the  first  time  a  tree  from  which  a 
gardener  is  here  cutting  off  a  branch  and  there  pru- 
ning away  smaller  parts,  should  regard  the  gardener, 
the  only  visible  agent,  as  the  creator  of  the  whole 
structure:  knowing  nothing  about  the  agency  of  sun 
and  rain,  air  and  soil.  Undeveloped  intelligences  can- 
not recognize  the  results  of  slow,  silent,  invisible 
causes. 

Education  and  culture  as  we  now  see  them,  do 
nothing  to  diminish  this  incapacity  but  tend  rather  to 


34  SPONTANEOUS  REFORM. 

increase  it.  In  so  far  as  they  are  more  than  lin- 
guistic, the  "  Humanities,"  to  which  the  attention  of 
the  young  is  mainly  given,  are  concerned  with  per- 
sonalities. After  the  traditional  doings  of  gods  and 
heroes,  of  great  leaders  and  their  conquests,  come  the 
products  of  the  poets,  of  the  historians,  of  the  phi- 
losophers. And  when  study  of  earlier  ages  is  supple- 
mented by  study  of  later  ages,  we  find  the  so-called 
history  composed  of  kings'  biographies,  the  narratives 
of  their  conflicts,  the  squabbles  and  intrigues  of  their 
vassals  and  dependents.  In  the  consciousness  of  one 
who  has  passed  through  the  curriculum  universally 
prevailing  until  recently,  there  is  no  place  for  natural 
causation.  Instead,  there  exists  only  the  thought  of 
what,  in  a  relative  sense,  is  artificial  causation — the 
causation  by  appointed  agencies  and  through  force 
directed  by  this  or  that  individual  will.  Small 
changes  wrought  by  officials  are  clearly  conceived, 
but  there  is  no  conception  of  those  vast  changes  which 
have  been  wrought  through  the  daily  process  of 
things  undirected  by  authority.  And  thus  the  notion 
that  a  society  is  a  manufacture  and  not  an  evolution, 
vitiates  political  thinking  at  large;  leading,  as  in  the 
case  which  has  served  me  for  a  text,  to  the  belief  that 
only  by  coercion  can  benefits  be  achieved.  Is  an  evil 
shown?  then  it  must  be  suppressed  by  law.  Is  a  good 
thing  suggested?  then  let  it  be  compassed  by  an  Act 
of  Parliament. 


FEELING   VERSUS  INTELLECT. 

In  the  early  days  of  my  friendship  with  Prof. 
Huxley — I  think  about  1854 — an  afternoon  call  on 
him  quickly  brought  the  suggestion — "  Come  up- 
stairs; I  want  to  show  you  something  which  will  de- 
light you — a  fact  that  goes  slick  through  a  great  gen- 
eralization! "  His  ironical  expression  was  prompted 
by  his  consciousness  that  being  so  much  given  to  gen- 
eralizing I  should  be  disconcerted.  He  was  dissecting 
the  brain  of  a  porpoise,  and  the  anomalous  fact  he 
pointed  out  was  that  the  porpoise  has  a  brain  of  rela- 
tively immense  size — a  size  seemingly  out  of  all  rela- 
tion to  the  creature's  needs.  What  can  an  animal 
leading  so  simple  a  life  want  with  an  organ  almost 
large  enough  to  carry  on  the  life  of  a  human  being? 
Huxley  (not  then  professor)  had  no  solution  of  the 
difficulty  to  offer,  and  at  the  time  there  did  not  occur 
to  me  what  I  believe  to  be  the  solution. 

There  has  grown  up  universally  an  identification 
of  mind  with  intelligence.  Partly  because  the  guid- 
ance of  our  actions  by  thought  is  so  conspicuous,  and 
partly  because  speech,  which  occupies  so  large  a  space 
in  our  lives,  is  a  vehicle  that  makes  thought  pre- 

35 


36  FEELING  VERSUS  INTELLECT. 

dominant  to  ourselves  and  others,  we  are  led  to  sup- 
pose that  the  thought-element  of  mind  is  its  chief  ele- 
ment: an  element  often  excluding  from  recognition 
every  other.  Consequently,  when  it  is  said  that  the 
brain  is  the  organ  of  the  mind,  it  is  assumed  that  the 
brain  is  chiefly  if  not  wholly  the  organ  of  the  intel- 
lect. 

The  error  is  an  enormous  one.  The  chief  com- 
ponent of  mind  is  feeling.  To  see  this  it  is  necessary 
to  get  rid  of  the  wrong  connotations  which  the  word 
mind  has  acquired,  and  to  use  instead  its  equivalent 
— consciousness.  Mind  properly  interpreted  is  co-ex- 
tensive with  consciousness:  all  parts  of  consciousness 
are  parts  of  mind.  Sensations  and  emotions  are  parts 
of  consciousness,  and  so  far  from  being  its  minor 
components  they  are  its  major  components.  In  the 
first  place  the  mass  of  consciousness  at  any  moment 
consists  of  the  sensations  produced  in  us  by  things 
around  —  the  various  assemblages  of  colours  im- 
pressed through  our  eyes,  the  sounds  which  salute 
our  ears,  the  pressures  on  parts  of  our  bodies  as  we 
lie,  sit,  or  stand,  the  muscular  strains  accompanying 
our  movements,  and  occasionally  tastes  and  odours. 
Among  these  numerous  peripheral  feelings  there  is 
every  instant  an  establishment  of  relations  consti- 
tuting perceptions  and  thoughts — colours  occupying 
certain  areas  and  positions  are  recognized  as  such  and 
such  things  by  assimilation  to  ideal  sets  of  colours 


FEELING  VERSUS  INTELLECT.  37 

similarly  arranged,  and  from  the  movements  of  cer- 
tain groups  of  them  particular  results  are  foreseen: 
these  foreseen  results  being  ideal  groups  of  feelings. 
And  so  with  all  the  sounds,  touches,  odours,  warmths : 
the  intellectual  element  being  limited  to  recognition 
of  the  co-existences  and  sequences  among  these.  So 
that  the  body  even  of  our  thought-consciousness  con- 
sists of  feelings,  and  only  the  form  constitutes  what 
we  distinguish  as  intelligence:  there  is  no  intelli- 
gence in  a  sensation  of  red,  or  of  sweetness,  or  of 
hardness,  or  of  effort,  but  only  in  certain  co-ordina- 
tions of  such  sensations. 

And  then  comes  the  other  great  class  of  feelings, 
ignored  in  the  current  conception  of  mind — the  emo- 
tions. Of  these,  as  of  the  sensations,  it  is  observable 
that  the  ordinary  ones  present  from  moment  to  mo- 
ment are  not  regarded  as  feelings  at  all.  Like  respi- 
rations or  winkings  of  the  eyes,  their  unceasingness 
makes  us  oblivious  of  them.  Yet  every  instant  emo- 
tions are  present.  No  movement  is  made  but  what 
is  preceded  by  a  prompting  feeling  as  well  as  a 
prompting  thought.  And  it  needs  only  that  the 
movement  shall  be  large,  or  difficult,  or  resisted,  to 
make  us  aware  that  an  emotion  of  some  kind  was  its 
antecedent.  So  is  it  with  all  the  other  feeble  emo- 
tions. The  day  is  fine,  and  there  is  a  slight  exalta- 
tion of  mental  state.  It  is  rainy,  and  a  comparative 
dulness  results.    Some  one  liked  comes  in,  and  a  wave 


38  FEELING   VERSUS  INTELLECT. 

of  agreeable  consciousness  arises;  while  an  emotional 
cloud  follows  the  sight  of  an  enemy.  Similarly  with 
occupations.  There  is  some  task-work  to  be  done, 
and  behind  all  the  bodily  and  mental  activities  need- 
ed, there  lies  a  dim  feeling  of  aversion — a  feeling  dif- 
fering greatly  from  that  which  accompanies  the  work- 
ing at  a  hobby  or  the  achievement  of  a  success.  And 
then  though  the  aggregate  feeling  ever  passing  is  so 
unobtrusive  that  we  hardly  think  of  it  as  existing, 
it  becomes,  under  exciting  circumstances,  almost  the 
sole  occupant  of  consciousness.  If  altercation  rouses 
extreme  anger,  the  emotion  may  become  so  great  as 
even  to  exclude  the  power  of  speech:  the  thought- 
element  is  overwhelmed.  Intense  alarm  may  so 
throw  the  intellect  out  of  gear  as  to  produce  tempo- 
rary inability  to  act.  The  anxiety  bred  of  absorbing 
affection  may  extinguish  all  irrelevant  ideas.  And 
this  mental  element  which  thus  upon  occasion  shows 
itself  supreme,  is  in  a  sense  supreme  at  all  times;  for 
the  prevailing  emotions,  higher  or  lower,  are  those 
components  of  mind  which  determine  the  daily  con- 
duct, now  dutiful  now  lax,  now  noble  now  base.  That 
part  which  we  ordinarily  ignore  when  speaking  of 
mind  is  its  essential  part.  The  emotions  are  the  mas- 
ters, the  intellect  is  the  servant.  The  guidance  of  our 
acts  through  perception  and  reason  has  for  its  end 
the  satisfaction  of  feelings,  which  at  once  prompt  the 
acts  and  yield  the  energy  for  performance  of  the  acts; 


FEELING  VERSUS  INTELLECT.  39 

for  all  the  exertions  daily  gone  through,  whether 
accompanied  by  agreeable  or  disagreeable  feelings, 
are  gone  through  that  certain  other  feelings  may  be 
obtained  or  avoided. 

Here,  then,  is  the  solution  of  the  anomaly  named 
at  the  outset.  The  large  brain  of  the  porpoise  is  not 
the  agent  of  much  intellectual  activity,  but  it  is  the 
agent  of  much  emotional  activity,  accompanying  the 
pursuit  and  capture  of  prey.  That  enormous  muscu- 
lar power  exhibited  by  the  creature — exhibited  some- 
times in  its  superfluous  gambols  while  keeping  up 
with  a  swift  vessel — is  the  expression  of  an  enormous 
outflow  of  feeling;  for  without  the  correlative  feel- 
ing there  could  not  be  the  muscular  contraction.  It 
is  in  generating  this  great  body  of  feeling  and  con- 
comitant energy,  perpetually  expended  in  the  move- 
ments of  the  chase,  that  its  brain  is  mainly  occupied. 

The  multiplication  of  effects,  which  is  a  universal 
trait  in  the  cosmic  process,  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
way  in  which  errors  ramify  and  eventually  influence 
multitudinous  things  they  are  seemingly  unconcerned 
with.  That  I  might  indicate  some  perverted  concep- 
tions arising  from  it,  has  been  my  purpose  in  pointing 
out  this  immense  mistake  commonly  made  in  identi- 
fying mind  with  intellect. 

For  in  these  days,  when  it  is  assumed  that,  as 
components  of  the  human  being,  mind  and  body  stand 


40  FEELING   VERSUS  INTELLECT. 

the  one  high  above  the  other  (if  indeed  we  can  say 
this  in  presence  of  athleticism,  and  the  giving  of 
greater  honour  to  the  stroke  of  a  winning  eight 
than  to  a  senior  wrangler) — in  these  days  when 
theoretically  if  not  practically  the  mental  domi- 
nates over  the  physical,  grave  evil  arises  from  leav- 
ing the  more  important  part  of  the  mental  out  of 
account.  The  over-valuation  of  intelligence  neces- 
sarily has  for  its  concomitant  under-valuation  of 
the  emotional  nature.  Considered  in  respect  of 
their  fitness  for  life,  individual  and  social,  those  in 
whom  the  altruistic  sentiments  predominate  are  far 
superior  to  those  who,  with  powers  of  perception  and 
reasoning  of  the  highest  kinds  join  anti-social  feelings 
— unscrupulous  egoism  and  disregard  of  fellow-men. 
The  contrast  between  some  uncivilized  tribes  well  il- 
lustrates this  truth.  Among  savages  the  Fijians 
were,  when  found,  remarkable  for  their  cleverness, 
and  for  an  ability  to  think  which  the  lower  races 
rarely  show;  while  at  the  same  time  cannibalism  was 
rampant  among  them,  slave-tribes  were  preserved  for 
food,  and  it  was  an  ambition  to  be  a  known  murderer. 
On  the  other  hand  the  peaceful  Arafuras  are  not  de- 
scribed as  intelligent:  some  of  their  ideas  imply  the 
contrary.  But  living  together  as  they  do  without 
antagonisms  and  with  only  nominal  government,  their 
feelings  are  such  that  one  who,  being  young,  was  dis- 
appointed in  his  desire  to  be  chief  (a  distinction  main- 


FEELING   VERSUS  INTELLECT.  41 

ly  implying  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  poorer 
tribesmen)  consoled  himself  by  saying — "  Well,  I  can 
still  use  my  property  in  helping  my  fellows."  When 
thus  put  in  apposition,  the  superiority  of  the  moral 
element  to  the  intellectual  element  becomes  conspicu- 
ous. So  long  as  it  will  hold  together,  a  society  wicked 
in  the  extreme  may  be  formed  of  men  who  in  keen- 
ness of  intellect  rank  with  Mephistopheles ;  and,  con- 
versely, though  its  members  are  stupid  and  unpro- 
gressive,  a  society  may  be  full  of  happiness  if  its 
members  are  scrupulously  regardful  of  one  another's 
claims,  and  actively  sympathetic.  This  proposition, 
though  almost  a  truism,  is  little  regarded.  Full  rec- 
ognition of  its  truth  would  make  men  honour,  much 
more  than  they  do,  the  unobtrusively  good,  and  think 
less  of  those  whose  merit  is  intellectual  ability.  There 
would,  for  example,  be  none  of  the  unceasing  admira- 
tion for  that  transcendent  criminal,  Napoleon. 

An  over-valuation  of  teaching  is  necessarily  a 
concomitant  of  this  erroneous  interpretation  of  mind. 
Everywhere  the  cry  is — Educate,  educate,  educate! 
Everywhere  the  belief  is  that  by  such  culture  as 
schools  furnish,  children,  and  therefore  adults,  can 
be  moulded  into  the  desired  shapes.  It  is  assumed 
that  when  men  are  taught  what  is  right,  they  will  do 
what  is  right — that  a  proposition  intellectually  ac- 
cepted will  be  morally  operative.  And  yet  this  con- 
viction, contradicted  by  every-day  experience,  is  at 


42  FEELING  VEBSUS  INTELLECT. 

variance  with  an  e very-day  axiom — the  axiom  that 
each  faculty  is  strengthened  by  exercise  of  it — in- 
tellectual power  by  intellectual  action,  and  moral 
power  by  moral  action.  The  current  notion  is  that 
these  causes  and  effects  can  be  transposed — that  as- 
sent to  an  injunction  will  be  followed  by  exercise  of 
the  correlative  feeling.  It  is  true  that  where  the 
feeling  is  already  active,  or  the  capacity  for  it  exists, 
some  effect  may  result;  but  where  the  feeling  is  dor- 
mant or  congenitally  deficient,  the  injunction  prac- 
tically does  nothing:  unless,  indeed,  it  excites  repug- 
nance, as  sometimes  happens.  It  seems,  however, 
that  this  unlimited  faith  in  teaching  is  not  to  be 
changed  by  facts.  Though  in  presence  of  multitudi- 
nous schools,  high  and  low,  we  have  the  rowdies  and 
Hooligans,  the  savage  disturbers  of  meetings,  the 
adulterators  of  food,  the  givers  of  bribes  and  receiv- 
ers of  corrupt  commissions,  the  fraudulent  solicitors, 
the  bubble  companies,  yet  the  current  belief  contin- 
ues unweakened;  and  recently  in  America  an  outcry 
respecting  the  yearly  increase  of  crime,  was  joined 
with  an  avowed  determination  not  to  draw  any  infer- 
ence adverse  to  their  educational  system.  But  the 
refusal  to  recognize  the  futility  of  mere  instruction 
as  a  means  to  moralization,  is  most  strikingly  shown 
by  ignoring  the  conspicuous  fact  that  after  two 
thousand  years  of  Christian  exhortations,  uttered 
by  a  hundred  thousand  priests  throughout  Europe, 


FEELING  VERSUS   INTELLECT.       43 

pagan  ideas  and  sentiments  remain  rampant,  from 
emperors  down  to  tramps.  Principles  admitted  in 
theory  are  scorned  in  practice.  Forgiveness  is  voted 
dishonourable.  An  insnlt  must  be  wiped  out  by 
blood:  the  obligation  being  so  peremptory  that  an 
officer  is  expelled  the  army  for  even  daring  to  ques- 
tion it.  And  in  international  affairs  the  sacred  duty 
of  revenge,  supreme  with  the  savage,  is  supreme  also 
with  the  so-called  civilized. 

As  implied  above,  this  undue  faith  in  teaching  is 
mainly  caused  by  the  erroneous  conception  of  mind. 
Were  it  fully  understood  that  the  emotions  are  the 
masters  and  the  intellect  the  servant,  it  would  be  seen 
that  little  can  be  done  by  improving  the  servant  while 
the  masters  remain  unimproved.  Improving  the 
servant  does  but  give  the  masters  more  power  of 
achieving  their  ends. 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  AKT. 

The  educational  mania,  having  for  its  catchwords 
"  Enlightenment,  Information,  Instruction,"  tends 
in  all  ways  to  emphasize  this  erroneous  ^identification 
of  mind  with  intellect;  and  consequently  affects  the 
estimates  men  make  of  various  mental  activities  and 
mental  products.  Among  other  results  it  vitiates 
their  conceptions  of  Art  and  the  purpose  of  Art: 
using  the  word  Art  in  the  sense  now  generally  accept- 
ed as  comprehensive  of  all  works  of  creative  imagina- 
tion. In  this  sphere,  as  in  other  spheres,  there  is 
under-valuation  of  the  emotional  element  in  mind  and 
over-valuation  of  the  intellectual  element. 

Merely  alluding  to  the  unended  controversy  con- 
cerning dramatic  art,  which  has  all  along  turned 
upon  the  question  whether  the  stage-representations 
of  life  are  or  are  not  instructive,  as  though  the  pro- 
duction of  pleasure  were  of  no  account,  I  may  note 
that  in  poetry  we  may  see  this  bringing  to  the  front 
of  thought  instead  of  feeling:  instance  the  dictum  of 
Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  that  "  it  is  by  a  large,  free,  and 
sound  representation  of  things,  that  poetry,  this  high 
criticism  of  life,  has  truth  of  substance."  Not  the 
44 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  ART.  45 

arousing  of  certain  sentiments  but  the  communica- 
tion of  certain  ideas  is  thus  represented  as  the  poet's 
office. 

With  pictorial  representation  the  like  has  hap- 
pened. Artists  seek  to  magnify  their  office  on  the 
ground  that  art  is  useful  for  intellectual  culture :  that 
reason  being  the  only  one  assigned.  Years  ago  my 
attention  was  drawn  to  this  mistaken  conception  by 
a  disquisition  with  which  Mr.  Holman  Hunt  accom- 
panied an  exhibited  picture — "  Christ  in  the  Work1 
shop,"  it  may  have  been.  The  educational  value  of 
Art  was  the  theme  of  his  proem.  By  implication  it 
appeared  that  it  is  not  enough  for  a  picture  to  gratify 
the  aesthetic  perceptions  or  raise  a  pleasurable  emo- 
tion. It  must  teach  something.  The  yielding  of 
satisfaction  to  certain  feelings  is  not  regarded  as  an 
aim  to  be  put  in  the  foreground,  but  the  primary  aim 
must  be  instruction.  Recently  in  a  lecture  delivered 
before  the  Ruskin  Society  of  Birmingham  by  the  edi- 
tor of  The  Studio,  I  found  an  expression  of  the  same 
belief.  The  words  used  were: — "  The  mission  of  art 
is  to  elevate  the  intelligence  and  gratify  its  longings." 

And  now  the  same  thing  is  happening  in  respect 
of  music.  This,  too,  is  to  be  regarded  as  an  intellec- 
tual exercise.  It  is  an  appeal  to  mind ;  and  mind  be- 
ing conceived  as  intellect  it  is  an  appeal  to  intellect. 
A  composer  must  write  to  express,  not  feelings  but 
enlightening  ideas,  and  the  listener  must  seek  out  and 


46  THE  PURPOSE  OP  ART. 

appreciate  these  ideas.  The  avowed  theory  of  Wag- 
ner was  that  the  purpose  of  music  is  to  teach.  He 
held  certain  conceptions  of  life  and  considered  his 
operas  as  vehicles  for  those  conceptions  and  as 
agents  for  propagating  them.  Some  kindred  belief 
is  implied  by  a  distinguished  disciple  over  here,  who 
repudiates  the  supposition  that  music  is  to  be  con- 
ceived simply  as  a  source  of  pleasure.  On  another 
side  we  see  a  kindred  idea.  Musical  critics  often  give 
applause  to  compositions  as  being  "  scientific  " — as 
being  meritorious  not  in  respect  of  the  emotions  they 
arouse  but  as  appealing  to  the  cultured  intelligence 
of  the  musician. 

As  implied  above,  I  hold  these  to  be  perverted 
beliefs,  having  their  roots  in  the  prevailing  enormous 
error  respecting  the  constitution  of  mind.  In  that 
part  of  life  concerned  with  music,  as  in  other  parts 
of  life,  the  intellect  is  the  minister  and  the  emotions 
the  things  ministered  to.  Doubtless  certain  amounts 
of  intellectual  perception,  implying  appropriate  cul- 
ture, are  needful  for  making  possible  the  pleasurable 
feelings  which  music  is  capable  of  producing.  These, 
however,  are  but  means  to  an  end,  and  it  is  a  pro- 
found mistake  to  regard  them  as  the  end  itself.  An 
analogy  will  help  us  here.  Before  there  can  be  sym- 
pathy there  must  have  been  gained  some  knowledge 
of  the  natural  language  of  the  emotions — what  tones 
and  changes  of  voice,  what  facial  expressions,  what 


THE  PURPOSE  OF  ART.  47 

movements  of  the  body,  signify  certain  states  of 
mind.  But  the  knowledge  of  this  natural  language 
does  not  constitute  sympathy.  There  may  be  clear 
perception  of  the  meanings  of  all  these  traits  without 
any  production  of  fellow-feeling.  Similarly,  then, 
with  the  distinction  between  the  knowledge  of  mu- 
sical expression  in  its  complex  developments,  and  the 
experience  of  those  emotions  to  which  the  musical 
expression  is  instrumental.  Only  in  so  far  as  its  cul- 
tivated perceptions  form  a  means  to  that  excitement 
of  the  feelings  which  the  composer  intended  to  pro- 
duce, does  the  intellect  properly  play  a  part;  and 
even  then,  in  playing  its  indispensable  part,  it  is  apt 
to  interfere  unduly.  Many  years  ago,  in  the  days 
when  I  had  free  admission  for  two  to  the  Royal  Ital- 
ian Opera,  and  when,  as  mentioned  in  her  Life,  I  fre- 
quently took  George  Eliot  as  my  companion,  I  re- 
member once  remarking  to  her  how  much  the  tend- 
ency to  analyze  the  effects  we  were  listening  to  de- 
ducted from  the  enjoyment  of  them:  my  remark  call- 
ing forth  full  "assent.  Consciousness  having  at  any 
moment  but  a  limited  capacity,  it  results  that  part 
of  its  area  cannot  be  occupied  in  one  way  without  de- 
creasing the  area  which  can  be  occupied  in  another 
way.  The  antagonism  between  intellectual  appre- 
ciation and  emotional  satisfaction,  is  essentially  the 
same  as  one  which  lies  at  the  root  of  our  mental 
structure — the    antagonism   between    sensation    and 


48  THE  PURPOSE  OF  ART. 

perception;  and  it  runs  up  throughout  the  whole 
content  of  mind,  rising  to  such  partial  conflicts  be- 
tween thought  and  feeling  as  those  which  accompany 
critical  judgments  of  music. 

When  we  come  to  the  alleged  higher  meaning  of 
music — to  that  instruction  which  a  composer  is  as- 
sumed to  utter  and  the  listener  to  comprehend,  we 
have  yet  a  further  interference  with  the  true  end. 
The  intellectual  element  intrudes  still  more  on  the 
emotional  element.  In  proportion  as  the  listener,  in- 
stead of  being  a  passive  recipient  becomes  an  active 
interpreter,  in  that  proportion  does  he  lose  the  kind 
of  consciousness  which  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  art  to 
produce.  If,  like  Mr.  Ernest  Newman,  he  thinks 
music  good  in  proportion  as  it  "  adds  something  to 
our  knowledge  of  life  "  and,  while  listening,  seeks  for 
such  knowledge,  he  will  lose  that  which  the  music 
should  give  him,  and,  as  I  believe,  will  get  nothing 
instead. 

Any  culture-effect  which  may  rightly  be  recog- 
nized must  be  consequent  on  the  excitement  of  the 
superior  emotions.  Music  may  appeal  to  crude  and 
coarse  feelings  or  to  refined  and  noble  ones;  and  in 
so  far  as  it  does  the  latter  it  awakens  the  higher  na- 
ture and  works  an  effect,  though  but  a  transitory 
effect,  of  a  beneficial  kind.  But  the  primary  pur- 
pose of  music  is  neither  instruction  nor  culture  but 
pleasure;  and  this  is  an  all-sufficient  purpose. 


SOME  QUESTIONS. 

Tethered  by  ill-health  to  the  South  of  England, 
I  have,  since  '8D,  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  sum- 
mer of  each  year  in  a  country  house — mostly  that  of 
some  gentleman-farmer  whose  family  and  surround- 
ings fulfilled  the  needful  conditions:  one  being  the 
presence  of  young  people.  Taking,  in  my  daily 
drives,  two  ladies  as  companions,  and  being  generally 
unable  to  bear  continuous  conversation,  I  put  a  check 
on  this  by  asking  one  or  other  question  not  to  be 
answered  without  thought.  The  practice  thus  origi- 
nated became  established,  and  it  has  since  been  my 
habit  to  set  problems,  partly  by  way  of  gauging  the 
knowledge  of  young  people  and  partly  by  way  of  ex- 
ercising their  reasoning  powers.  One  of  the  sim- 
plest, which  was  sometimes  answered,  is — How  hap- 
pens it  that  sheep,  rabbits,  and  hares  have  their  eyes 
on  the  sides  of  their  heads,  while  cats  and  dogs  have 
their  eyes  nearly  in  front?  Of  others,  to  which  the 
replies  are  less  obvious,  and  to  most  of  which  no  an- 
swers have  been  forthcoming,  here  are  a  few. 

How  is  it  possible  for  a  lark,  while  soaring,  to 

sing  for  several  minutes  without  cessation? 

What  is  the  reason  that  in  hilly  districts  the  roads 

49 


50  SOME  QUESTIONS. 

are  deep  down  below  the  level  of  the  fields,  whereas 
in  flat  districts  they  are  on  a  level  with  the  fields? 

Throughout  the  country,  especially  in  its  less  fre- 
quented parts,  the  bye-roads,  and  sometimes  even 
the  main  roads,  have  strips  of  greensward  several 
yards  wide  on  either  side  of  the  part  used  for  traffic. 
In  what  manner  did  these  strips  originate? 

Cows  and  horses  drink  in  the  same  way  that  we 
do,  whereas  dogs  and  cats  drink  by  lapping.  W hence 
arises  this  difference  of  habit  ? 

Why  does  a  duck  waddle  in  walking?  And  what 
is  the  need  for  that  trait  of  structure  which  causes  the 
waddle  ? 

How  is  it  that  a  bull-dog  is  able  to  retain  his  hold 
for  a  longer  period  than  other  dogs? 

Rookeries  are  nearly  always  close  to  human 
dwellings,  usually  of  some  size.  Rooks  seem  to  gain 
nothing  from  this  proximity,  but  daily  fly  far  away  to 
their  feeding-grounds.  Moreover  they  persist  in  thus 
breeding  in  the  trees  around  houses,  though  annually 
many  of  their  young  are  shot  as  soon  as  they  can  fly. 
What  circumstances  have  led  to  this  establishment  of 
a  home  apparently  so  unfit? 

In  rambles  or  drives  throughout  the  country  we 
sec  few  blackbirds  or  thrushes  in  the  open  fields,  but 
we  see  more  as  we  approach  houses,  especially  good 
bouses,  even  in  parts  of  the  year  when  there  are  no 
temptations  from  the  fruit  gardens.     Why  is  this? 


SOME  QUESTIONS.  51 

In  attempted  answers  to  these  questions,  the 
noteworthy  fact  has  been  the  undeveloped  idea  of 
causation  implied.  Xot  so  much  that  the  answers 
were  wrong  but  that  they  betrayed  no  conception  of  a 
relevant  cause,  was  the  startling  revelation.  When, 
for  instance,  I  was  asked  whether  a  soaring  lark's 
ability  to  sing  without  break  is  due  to  the  greater 
purity  of  the  air  high  up,  there  was  shown  entire 
failure  to  conceive  the  physical  actions  necessitated 
by  a  lark's  song.  Then,  again,  there  were  suggested 
solutions  which  were  utterly  indefinite  even  if  rele- 
vant. When  as  a  reason  why  the  drinking  of  cows 
and  horses  differs  from  that  of  dogs  and  cats,  there 
came  the  inquiry — Is  it  because  of  some  difference  in 
the  shapes  of  their  throats?  it  was  clear  that  had  I 
said  Yes,  the  answer  would  have  been  thought  suffi- 
cient: no  conception  having  been  framed  of  the  way 
in  which  the  suggested  difference  might  account  for 
the  unlikeness  of  habit.  Evidently  minds  left  in  the 
implied  states  are  seed-beds  for  superstitions.  That 
it  is  unlucky  to  spill  salt,  and  that  the  impending  ill- 
luck  may  be  excluded  by  throwing  a  pinch  over  the 
left  shoulder,  or  that  to  see  the  new  moon  through 
glass  is  likely  to  be  followed  by  some  evil,  are  beliefs 
accepted  without  difficulty  where  there  exist  no  ra- 
tional ideas  of  causation.  The  most  absurd  dogmas 
readily  find  lodgment  where  no  knowledge  has  been 
acquired  of  the  order  of  Nature. 


THE  OKIGIN"  OF  MUSIC. 

Forty  odd  years  ago  I  published  an  essay  under 
the  title — "  The  Origin  and  Function  of  Music." 
The  doctrine  contained  in  that  essay  has  been  vari- 
ously criticized,  in  most  cases  adversely,  both  here 
and  abroad.  One  of  the  earliest  of  my  critics  was 
Mr.  Edmund  Gurney,  whose  reasons  for  dissent  occu- 
pied some  pages  in  his  work  on  The  Power  of  Sound, 
as  well  as  an  essay  in  The  Fortnightly  Review  for 
July  1876.  To  his  criticisms  I  replied  in  a  Post- 
script some  few  years  ago  appended  to  the  original 
essay  (see  Essays,  Library  edition,  vol.  ii,  pp.  437- 
449).  In  this  Postscript  I  also  dealt  with  the  opposed 
theory  of  Mr.  Darwin,  who  ascribes  human  song,  as 
he  ascribes  the  songs  of  birds,  to  the  incidents  of 
courtship;  and  have  there,  I  think,  shown  the  un- 
tenability  of  his  hypothesis.  I  propose  here  to  deal 
with  the  hypotheses  of  several  others. 

In  Mind  for  July  1891,  Dr.  "Wallaschek,  while 
combating  the  view  elaborated  by  me,  enunciated  the 
view  that  the  essential  element  in  music  is  rhythm. 
lie  says: — 
52 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC.  53 

"  It  is  a  well-known  fact,  established  by  the  observations 
of  travellers  and  investigators,  that  the  one  essential  feature  in 
primitive  music  is  rhythm,  melody  being  a  matter  of  acci- 
dent." 

This  assertion  may,  I  think,  be  disposed  of  in  two 
ways.  It  is  at  variance  both  with  the  popular  concep- 
tion and  with  the  scientific  conception.  Observe  the 
popular  conception. 

Here  is  a  sparrow — the  too-familiar  sparrow.  It 
sits  on  the  eaves  and  chirps  with  tolerable  regularity. 
Especially  if  it  be  a  young  one  calling  for  food,  its 
chirps  are  regular  in  their  intervals — that  is,  rhyth- 
mical. Here  in  the  adjacent  copse  is  heard  a  black- 
bird, uttering  successions  of  notes  entirely  without 
rhythm.  To  which  of  these  kinds  of  utterance  do  we 
apply  the  word  "  song  "  ?  Not  to  that  of  the  rhyth- 
mical sparrow  but  to  that  of  the  unrhythmical  black- 
bird. And  why  do  we  call  the  utterance  of  the  black- 
bird a  song?  Manifestly  because  it  displays  the  most 
conspicuous  trait  of  that  which  we  call  song  in  human 
beings :  it  is  a  varying  combination  of  notes  differing 
in  pitch.  That  is  to  say,  we  deny  the  name  "  song  " 
absolutely  to  the  rhythmical  sounds  made  by  the  spar- 
row, in  which  there  is  no  combination  of  notes  un- 
like one  another,  and  we  give  it  to  the  variously- 
combined  sounds  made  by  the  blackbird,  though 
these  are  entirely  unrhythmical;  and  we  apply  the 
word  "  song  "  to  these  sounds  because  they  remind 
us  of  human  song.     Unquestionably,  then,  in  the 


54  THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC. 

popular  conception  rhythm  is  not  the  essential  ele- 
ment in  music. 

An  illustration  will  best  prepare  the  way  for  the 
disproof  furnished  by  analysis.  The  Mammalia  are 
animals  which,  as  the  name  implies,  are  characterized 
by  having  mammas — the  possession  of  mammae  es- 
sentially characterizes  a  mammal.  "  No,"  might  say 
Dr.  Wallaschek,  "  a  mammal's  essential  character- 
istic is  a  vertebral  column."  In  response  the  natural- 
ist would  reply  that  birds,  reptiles,  and  fishes  have 
also  vertebral  columns,  and  that  that  cannot  be  the 
essential  trait  of  a  mammal  which  is  a  trait  possessed 
by  other  groups  of  creatures  as  well:  it  must  be  a 
trait  in  which  it  differs  from  them.  Turn  now  to  the 
several  art-products  characterized  by  rhythm.  There 
are  the  rhythmical  movements  constituting  the  dance. 
There  are  the  rhythmically-arranged  articulations 
forming  verses.  And  there  are  the  successive  vocal 
sounds  of  different  pitch  which  compose  the  chant, 
in  which  verses  were  originally  uttered  —  sounds 
which  may  be  emitted  apart  from  the  words.  As 
these  three  rhythmical  manifestations  of  feeling  were 
at  first  simultaneous,  rhythm  cannot  be  considered 
the  fundamental  element  of  any  one  of  them  rather 
than  of  the  other  two.  It  belongs  to  the  rhythmical 
movements  and  to  the  rhythmical  speech,  just  as 
much  as  to  the  rhythmical  tones.  In  course  of  time 
these  manifestations  of  feeling  differentiated:  each 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC.  55 

retaining  its  rhythm.  And  that  which  characterizes 
any  one  of  the  three  must  be  that  in  which  it  is  unlike 
the  others,  not  that  which  it  has  in  common  with 
them. 

Thus  Dr.  Wallaschek's  hypothesis  ignores  entire- 
ly the  current  conception  of  music  and  ignores  also 
the  principles  of  scientific  classification. 

Eecently  in  a  clever,  and  in  most  respects  rational, 
work,  entitled  A  Study  of  Wagner,  Mr.  Ernest  New- 
man, with  his  own  adverse  arguments,  joined  those 
of  others.  He  quoted  approvingly  the  criticism  of 
M.  Combarieu: — 

"  Mr.  Spencer  neglects  or  ignores  everything  that  gives  to 
the  art  he  is  studying  its  special  and  unique  character ;  he  does 
not  appear  to  have  realized  what  a  musical  composition  is." 
(p.  164.) 

Here  we  have  a  striking  example  of  the  way  in  which 
an  hypothesis  is  made  to  appear  untenable  by  repre- 
senting it  as  being  something  which  it  does  not  profess 
to  be.  I  gave  an  account  of  the  origin  of  music,  and 
now  I  am  blamed  because  my  conception  of  the  origin 
of  music  does  not  include  a  conception  of  music  as 
fully  developed !  If  to  someone  who  said  that  an  oak 
comes  from  an  acorn  it  were  replied  that  he  had  mani- 
festly never  seen  an  oak,  since  an  acorn  contains  no 
trace  of  all  its  complexities  of  form  and  structure, 
the  reply  would  not  be  thought  a  rational  one ;  but  it 
would  be  quite  as  rational  as  this  of  M.  Combarieu, 
who  thinks  I  have  not  "  realized  what  a  musical  com- 


5G  THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC. 

position  is  "  because  my  theory  of  the  origin  of  music 
says  nothing  about  the  characteristics  of  an  overture 
or  a  quartet.  What  is  every  process  of  evolution 
but  the  gradual  assumption  of  traits  which  were  not 
originally  possessed? 

Some  of  Mr.  Newman's  own  criticisms  exhibit  the 
same  confusion  between  the  origin  of  a  thing  and  the 
thing  which  originates  from  it.     He  says: — 

"  Mr.  Spencer  himself  admits  that  his  theory  affords  no 
explanation  of  the  place  of  harmony  in  modern  music,  while 
many  musical  aistheticians  have  found  it  almost  as  unsatisfactory 
in  respect  to  the  origin  of  melody."     (p.  1G3.) 

With  equal  reason  the  assertion  that  all  mathematics 
begins  with  finger-counting  might  be  rejected  because, 
if  so,  no  explanation  is  forthcoming  of  the  differential 
calculus!  Passing  over  this,  however,  let  us  note 
two  startling  corollaries  from  Mr.  Newman's  criti- 
cism. If  a  theory  of  the  origin  of  music  is  untrue 
because  it  does  not  recognize  harmony,  then  the  music 
of  all  Oriental  peoples  is  swept  away  as  not  being 
music,  since  harmony  is  absent  from  it.  Nay  more, 
early  European  music,  as  of  the  Greeks,  consisted 
solely  of  single  successions  of  notes  constituting  mel- 
ody, or,  more  strictly,  recitative :  harmony  came  into 
existence  only  in  comparatively  modern  times.  The 
invalidity  of  the  objection  is  by  these  facts  made 
conspicuous.  History  itself  shows  us  that  harmony, 
being  a  late  development  of  music,  could  not  possibly 
be  recognized  in  an  account  of  its  origin. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC.  57 

Other  passages  in  Mr.  Newman's  criticism  go  far 
towards  conceding  that  which  he  denies.  He  says 
that— 

"vocal  music  is,  broadly  speaking,  intended  to  present  the 
verbal  sense  in  another  and  more  intensive  form :  its  function  is 
to  re-think  the  speech-utterance  in  music.  It  is  evident  that 
this  is  impossible  where  the  words,  having  no  emotional  con- 
tent," &c 

Surely  this  is  an  admission  that  there  is  a  natural  re- 
lation between  emotions  and  musical  cadences — an 
admission  again  made  when  denying  the  practicabil- 
ity of  giving  a  musical  form  to  "  a  purely  intellectual 
utterance."  *  In  another  place,  Mr.  Newman  goes 
still  further  towards  accepting  the  view  which  he  sets 
out  to  reject.     He  writes: — 

"  Hardly  more  noticeable  is  the  transition  from  excited 
speech  to  ordinary  recitative ;  the  mind  feels  that  it  is  still  in 
the  same  atmosphere,  though  the  breathing  is  a  little  quickened. 
But  sing  a  song,  or  play  an  adagio  upon  the  piano,  and  you 
will  realize  at  once  that  you  have  got  upon  quite  a  different 
plane  of  psychology."     (p.  163.) 

To  most  it  will  seem  strange  that  along  with  the  be- 
lief that  there  is  a  natural  transition  from  excited 
speech  to  recitative  there  should  go  a  denial  that 

*  Since  this  was  written  an  amusing  illustration  has  been 
furnished  me  by  a  collection  of  Handel's  "Opera  Songs. :'  A 
song  in  the  opera  of  Floridante  commences  thus : 

"  Tis  worth  observing, 
Some  must  be  serving, 
Seeing  that  we  cannot  all  wear  a  crown." 


58  THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC. 

there  can  be  any  such  transition  from  recitative  to 
song. 

An  illustration  will,  I  think,  dispose  of  this  al- 
leged difference  in  the  "  plane  of  psychology."  Here 
is  a  fabric  of  simple  silk.  Here  is  another  fabric,  like 
in  colour  and  quality  but  figured:  the  figure,  though 
of  the  same  silk  as  the  ground,  being  clearly  distin- 
guishable from  it.  Evidently  it  may  be  said  that  the 
transition  from  the  simple  silk  to  the  figured  silk,  is 
a  transition  to  something  lying  in  a  different  plane  of. 
construction.  Yet  the  two  have  a  common  origin. 
The  Jacquard  loom  was  developed  from  the  ordinary 
loom,  and  retains  its  essential  principles:  the  Jac-, 
quard  apparatus  being  superposed  on  the  original 
apparatus.  In  like  manner,  then,  such  distinction  as 
exists  between  recitative  and  melody  is  a  distinction 
which  may  be  recognized  while  asserting  that  the  two 
have  a  common  source:  melody  rising  a  step  higher 
than  recitative  as  recitative  rises  a  step  higher  than 
excited  speech. 

Elsewhere,  as  also  in  some  of  the  above  para- 
graphs, I  have  cited  direct  evidence  of  development; 
as  instance  the  fact  that  the  music  of  Eastern  races 
is  not  only  without  harmony  but  has  more  the  char- 
acter of  recitative  than  of  melody,  and  the  fact  that 
the  chant  of  the  Early  Greek  poet  was  a  recitative 
with  accompaniment  in  unison  on  his  four-stringed 
lyre.     But  Sir  Hubert  Parry,  who  adopts  the  view 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC.  59 

I  have  here  re-explained  and  defended,  has  in  his 
chapter  on  "  Folk-Music "  exemplified  the  early 
stages  of  musical  evolution,  up  from  the  howling 
chants  of  savages — Australians,  Caribs,  Polynesian 
cannibals,  &c. — to  the  rude  melodies  of  our  own  an- 
cestors. I  do  not  see  how  any  unbiassed  reader,  after 
examining  the  evidence  placed  by  him  in  its  natural 
order,  can  refuse  assent  to  the  conclusion  drawn. 

The  argument  may  be  much  strengthened  by  em- 
phasizing some  of  the  essential  points.  One  of  these, 
of  great  significance,  I  take  from  an  account  of 
"  Omaha  Indian  Music  "  by  Miss  Alice  C.  Fletcher, 
an  official  of  the  Ethnological  Museum  at  Cambridge, 
Mass.  After  describing  the  difficulties  she  had  in 
bringing  their  songs  into  such  forms  as  we  use,  she 
says : — "  I  ceased  to  trouble  about  theories  of  scales, 
tones,  rhythm,  and  melody  ";  and  then  she  goes  on  to 
say  that  she  found  it  difficult  to  write  down  the  songs 
of  these  Indians  because  their  intervals  are  so  indefi- 
nite. Now  this  is  just  one  of  the  traits  to  be  expected 
if  vocal  music  is  developed  out  of  emotional  speech; 
since  the  intervals  of  speech,  also,  are  indefinite.  Its 
tones  have  no  such  sharp  and  fixed  distinctions  as 
those  by  which  the  notes  of  song  are  characterized. 
A  higher  stage  of  the  transition  is  strikingly  shown 
by  the  Japanese  song  or  recitative  "  Sayanara  "  (in 
English,  "  Farewell  ").*     ~No  listener  to  this  can  I 

*  From  the  Miyako-Dori,  edited  by  Mr.  Paul  Bevan. 


60  THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC. 

think  deny  that  it  is  simply  an  idealization  of  the 
vocal  utterances  which  strong  feeling  of  a  relevant 
kind  might  naturally  produce.  And  then  if,  after 
this,  he  listens  to  Schubert's  "  Adieu  "  he  may  recog- 
nize a  further  idealization  of  the  appropriate  musical 
phrases  and  cadences — a  further  development  of  the 
melodic  form. 

Supposing  that  the  above  explanations  and  the 
above  further  evidences  do  not  convince  dissentients, 
there  may  be  put  to  them  the  question — How  then 
do  you  explain  the  origin  of  music?  "Were  belief  in 
the  supernatural  as  dominant  now  as  during  past  gen- 
erations, there  would  come  the  ready  answer  that 
men  when  created  were  endowed  with  a  musical 
sense;  to  which,  however,  would  come  the  reply  that 
some  races  of  men  have  no  musical  sense.  But  now 
that  supernaturalism  has  been  so  largely  deposed  by 
naturalism,  and  now  that  the  evolution  even  of  hu- 
man faculties  is  by  many  admitted,  there  presents 
itself  the  question — From  what  has  the  musical  facul- 
ty been  evolved?  With  the  established  doctrine  that 
from  simple  vocal  signs  of  ideas  language  has  been 
developed,  there  must  obviously  go  the  doctrine  that 
from  similarly  rude  beginnings  there  has  been  a  de- 
velopment of  music;  and  if  so  there  must  be  faced 
the  question — What  rude  beginnings?  Those  who  re- 
ject the  answer  here  given  are  bound  to  give  another. 
What  can  it  be  ? 


DEVELOPED  MUSIC. 

To  dissipate  utterly  the  supposition  that  the  essay 
"  On  the  Origin  and  Function  of  Music  "  was  intend- 
ed to  be  a  theory  of  music  at  large,  it  may  be  well  to 
indicate  the  scope  of  such  a  theory:  showing,  by  im- 
plication, how  small  a  part  of  it  is  included  in  the 
essay  named.  But  let  me  first  re-state  some  of  the 
leading  propositions  of  that  essay,  and  give  some  ad- 
ditional evidences. 

With  the  truth  that  music  under  all  its  forms  is 
an  expression  of  exalted  feeling,  must  be  joined  the 
truth  that  the  exalted  feeling  which  most  commonly 
manifests  itself  vocally,  is  one  of  joy.  We  see  this 
among  children  especially.  Hence  through  associa- 
tion it  happens  that  there  is  a  certain  vague  elation 
derived  from  the  mere  perception  of  music,  even 
when  distance  renders  its  special  nature  indistinguish- 
able: a  faint  wave  of  pleasure  arises  from  sympathy 
with  the  half-audible  sounds  expressive  of  excited 
emotion.  And  this  undefined  gratification  which 
music  at  large  produces,  seems  always  to  remain  the 
background  on  which  each  piece  of  music  imposes  its 

61 


G2  DEVELOPED  MUSIC. 

particular  shape — the  faint  general  feeling  which 
each  piece  specializes  and  intensifies,  now  in  this  way, 
now  in  that. 

An  associated  universal  fact  must  be  named,  be- 
cause, though  conspicuous,  its  significance  is  not  suffi- 
ciently appreciated.  It  is  that  the  various  musical 
expressions  of  feeling  in  songs  and  instrumental  pieces 
have  all  the  trait  of  rhythmical  variation — ascents 
and  descents — originally  simple  and  becoming  grad- 
ually complex.  How  much  closer  than  we  common- 
ly suppose  is  the  resulting  kinship  among  musical 
compositions,  will  be  seen  on  comparing  the  following 
four  diagrams,  by  which  a  graphic  form  is  given  to 
the  successive  ascents  and  descents  and  the  lengths 
of  successive  notes.  Of  course  the  intervals  between 
notes  and  the  lengths  of  notes,  are  incommensurable 
quantities;  and  as,  for  convenience,  the  horizontal 
lines  representing  the  lengths  of  notes  have  been 
made  short  in  comparison  with  the  vertical  lines  rep- 
resenting the  lengths  of  intervals,  a  somewhat  dis- 
torted impression  is  given.  But  this  leaves  unaffected 
the  general  likeness  which  runs  throughout  these  sym- 
bolized songs,  widely  different  as  they  are  in  their 
characters.  For  they  represent  respectively  the 
"  Marseillaise,"  Handel's  "  Largo,"  "  Pur  di  cesti," 
and  a  hunting  song,  "  Old  Towler." 


DEVELOPED  MUSIC. 

THE     MARStlLLAlSE 


63 


HAND  Ells    LARCO 


PUR   Dl  CESTf 


~U1 


AAr1 


Pu 


lA-l 


r"" 


OLD   TOWLER 


Yocal  sounds  are  produced  by  the  strains  of  cer- 
tain muscles,  and  we  see  how  in  each  case  these  strains 
alternate  between  extremes,  and  how  the  major  al- 
ternations are  broken  by  minor  alternations.  More- 
over there  is  suggested  the  analogy  between  these 
alternating  muscular  strains  and  those  by  which 
dancing  is  produced:  the  two  having  a  common  ori- 
gin in  the  discharge  of  feeling  into  action. 


64  DEVELOPED  MUSIC. 

On  turning  now  to  the  more  special  aspects  of 
music,  we  have  first  to  note  that  it  has  two  funda- 
mentally distinct  elements — sensational  and  relation- 
al. Its  effects  are  divisible  into  those  arising  from 
tones  themselves  and  those  arising  from  combina- 
tions among  tones,  successive  and  simultaneous. 
There  needs  no  proof  that  both  the  beauty  of  music 
and  such  dramatic  character  as  it  may  have,  primarily 
depend  on  the  natures  of  the  tones  used— their  loud- 
ness, pitch,  and  timbre.  Quite  apart  from  any  organ- 
ization of  them,  the  sounds  taken  individually  are 
causes  of  emotion,  now  pleasurable,  now  painful. 

Loud  tones  being  ordinarily  expressive  of  strong 
feelings,  it  results  that  in  music  there  is  a  certain  gen- 
eral relation  between  loudness  and  intensity  of  effect. 
I  say  advisedly  a  general  relation,  because  emotions 
of  some  kinds,  and  other  emotions  at  some  stages,  by 
prostrating  the  heart  and  thus  diminishing  the  out- 
flow of  energy,  produce  muscular  relaxation  instead 
of  muscular  strain;  and  consequently  express  them- 
selves in  feeble  tones.  But  while  recognizing  this 
qualifying  truth,  which  is  duly  recognized  in  the  ap- 
propriate forms  of  musical  expression,  we  may  still 
say  that  volume  of  sound  is  a  sign  of  mass  of  feel- 
ing, and  is  in  music  thus  interpreted  both  by  per- 
former and  auditor.  Here,  however,  comes  in  a  fur- 
ther truth  scarcely  at  all  recognized  by  either.  The 
loud  tone  expressive  of  strong  feeling  is  not  forced 


DEVELOPED  MUSIC.  65 

but  spontaneous — is  due  not  to  a  voluntary  but  to  an 
involuntary  excitement  of  the  vocal  apparatus.  Con- 
sequently a  singer's  loud  tone  must  be  a  tone  not  sug- 
gestive of  effort:  the  muscular  strain  required  must 
be  actually  or  apparently  unconscious.  But  singers, 
professional  and  amateur,  rarely  fulfil  this  require- 
ment; since,  usually,  their  voices  are  not  sonorous 
enough.  It  results  that  the  musical  effect  is  vitiated 
in  a  double  way :  the  tone  is  not  of  the  right  quality, 
and  the  listener's  disagreeable  sympathy  with  the 
singer's  exertion,  deducts  from  the  pleasurable  con- 
sciousness, even  if  it  does  not  produce  a  displeasur- 
able  consciousness.  Hence  the  unsatisfactoriness  of 
nearly  all  singing.  Indirectly,  a  contrast  of  allied 
origin  arises  between  that  kind  of  instrumental  music 
in  which  effort  manifestly  accompanies  the  produc- 
tion of  tones,  and  that  in  which  the  production  of 
tones  has  no  manifest  concomitant  of  effort.  In  this 
respect  orchestral  effects  do  not  compare  well  with 
the  effects  of  a  grand  organ.  In  the  one  case  the 
separate  tones  mostly  lack  that  volume  which  is  a 
large  element  in  musical  satisfaction;  while  there 
is  an  unavoidable  consciousness  of  the  exertions  which 
the  many  performers  are  making,  and  sympathy  with 
these,  as  well  as  attention  to  the  visible  motions,  de- 
duct from  the  pleasure  produced.  In  the  other  case, 
by  their  greater  volume  the  tones  excite  more  fully 
the  emotions  appealed  to,  while  the  efforts  of  the  or- 


66  DEVELOPED   MUSIC. 

ganist,  usually  invisible,  neither  distract  the  attention 
nor  excite  any  sympathetic  strain. 

I  pass  now  to  the  question  of  pitch.  In  the  origi- 
nal essay  referred  to  above,  I  said  much  about  the 
relations  of  high,  medium,  and  low  tones  to  feelings 
of  different  kinds,  and  about  their  consequent  uses 
in  music.  A  fact  not  there  named  must  here  be  em- 
phasized. Alike  in  passionate  speech  and  in  music, 
the  loudest  tones  are  also  the  tones  which  diverge 
most  widely  from  the  middle  notes  of  the  scale.  This 
is  a  necessary  implication.  The  two  traits  go  to- 
gether because  both  imply  great  muscular  strain. 
Hence  results  the  ordinary  law  of  expression.  The 
fact  is  familiar  that  in  musical  phrases,  single  and 
successive,  increasing  ascent  is  accompanied  by  inr 
creasing  loudness,  and  succeeding  cadences  ending  in 
notes  of  medium  pitch  by  decreasing  loudness:  the 
converse  relations  in  passages  below  the  middle  notes 
being  also  observable  when  they  occasionally  occur. 
How  essential  is  this  relation  (allowing  for  exceptions 
due  to  a  cause  above  indicated)  will  be  seen  on  observ- 
ing the  absurd  effect  produced  if  a  passage  be  so 
played  on  the  piano  as  to  invert  these  contrasts.  And 
here  this  reference  to  the  piano  suggests  a  further 
indirect  evidence  that  music  is  evolved  as  alleged; 
for  otherwise  no  reason  can  be  given  why  in  instru- 
mental music  this  same  law  of  expression  is  followed 
— no  reason  why  high  notes  should  be  louder  than 


DEVELOPED  MUSIC.  07 

medium  notes.  Vocal  music  is  governed  by  the  physi- 
ological need,  and  instrumental  music  is  obliged  to 
follow  its  lead;  thus  showing  that  it  has  the  same 
genealogy. 

Concerning  the  quality  or  timbre  of  tones,  it  must 
suffice  to  say  that  because  they  indicate  certain  feel- 
ings, certain  kinds  of  tones  are  appropriate  to  certain 
musical  settings  of  words  and  inappropriate  to  others. 
A  ridiculous  effect  would  be  produced  by  playing  Mo- 
zart's "  Addio  "  on  the  bagpipes ;  but  if  the  bagpipes 
be  used  for  rendering  "  Scots  wha'  hae,"  no  such  ex- 
treme incongruity  is  manifest:  the  rasping  character 
of  the  tones  is  not  at  variance  with  the  passion  ex- 
pressed. Conversely,  if  the  "  Marseillaise  "  be  played 
on  the  flute,  anyone  may  perceive  that  the  tones  lack 
adequate  power,  and  do  not  imply  strenuousness.  To 
express  the  sentiment  the  tones  of  the  trumpet  are 
the  fittest.  As  under  strong  emotions  of  the  unsym- 
pathetic class  the  voice  acquires  a  metallic  ring,  seem- 
ingly caused  by  increase  of  the  overtones,  instruments 
which  produce  overtones  in  large  proportion  are  the 
best  for  expressing  them;  while,  for  the  gentler  emo- 
tions, instruments  which  yield  almost  pure  tones  are 
better.  Of  course  these  truths  are  empirically  recog- 
nized. I  name  them  only  to  fill  up  the  outline  of  my 
argument. 

Incidentally  a  good  deal  has  been  said  above  con- 
cerning the  relational  element  in  music,  for  it  has 


68  DEVELOPED  MUSIC. 

been  impossible  to  treat  of  tones  simply  as  tones  with- 
out reference  to  other  tones.  We  have  now  to  deal 
with  the  relational  element  exclusively.  Let  us  con- 
template the  facts  from  the  evolution  point  of  view. 
In  its  correspondence  with  the  general  theory  of  evo- 
lution we  shall  find  support  for  the  special  theory 
of  musical  evolution  which  here  concerns  us. 

In  those  examples  with  which  Sir  Hubert  Parry 
commences  his  chapter  on  "  Folk-Music,"  we  have 
vocal  utterances  little  above  the  howls  and  groans  in 
which  inarticulate  feeling  expresses  itself.  There  is 
but  an  imperfect  differentiation  of  the  tones  into 
notes  properly  so  called.  So  that  we  see  well  exem- 
plified that  indefiniteness  which  "characterizes  incipi- 
ent evolution  in  general;  and  already  we  have  seen 
that  indefiniteness  continues  to  characterize  the  par- 
tially-differentiated tones  of  savage  chants  and  songs. 

Another  trait  of  incipient  evolution  meets  us  in 
the  monotonous  repetition  of  rude  musical  phrases  in 
primitive  music,  choral  and  individual.  A  practice 
common  among  the  lower  races  (by  no  means  un- 
known among  the  higher)  is  that  when  a  number  com- 
bine in  an  action  of  a  continuous  kind,  they  accom- 
pany it  by  a  chant :  instance  the  palanquin-bearers  of 
India;  instance  various  peoples  when  they  join  in 
rowing.  Some  simple  words  suggested  by  the  occa- 
sion, and  droned  out  in  a  simple  cadence,  are  repeated 
in  unison  by  all.     And  then,  sometimes,  a  change  is 


DEVELOPED  MUSIC.  69 

made  to  other  words  with  another  musical  phrase 
similarly  reiterated.  Among  tribes  in  the  earliest 
stages  the  like  happens  with  solos.  A  few  words  ut- 
tered in  tones  expressive  of  joy  or  grief  recur  over 
and  over  again;  showing  a  natural  tendency  which 
even  among  ourselves  may  often  be  witnessed  under 
sudden  disaster:  "  Oh  dear  me,"  "  Oh  dear  me," 
"  Oh  dear  me/'  being  uttered  time  after  time  in  the 
same  tones.  An  example  yielded  by  the  aborigines  of 
Australia  is  given  by  Sir  Hubert  Parry  on  page  49 
of  his  Art  of  Music,  The  significant  fact  is  that  one 
of  these  monotonous  chants  or  songs,  displays  the  in- 
coherence of  a  product  which  is  but  little  evolved; 
since  it  may  be  broken  at  any  point  indifferently.  Its 
component  passages  are  not  tied  together  by  anything 
constituting  them  a  whole.  Then,  once  more,  one 
of  these  primitive  pieces  of  music,  if  it  can  be  so 
called,  is  relatively  homogeneous:  it  is  a  string  of 
parts  all  alike.  Thus  we  have  the  relatively  indefinite, 
incoherent,  homogeneity  with  which  evolution  begins. 
But  this  is  not  the  only  kind  of  primitive  music. 
There  has  to  be  added  that  kind  generated  by  the 
emotion  with  which  great  achievements  are  narrated. 
"We  read  that  existing  peoples,  the  Araucanians,  sing 
the  prowess  of  their  heroes,  and  that  the  Greenland- 
ers  sing  of  "  their  exploits  in  the  chase  "  and  "  chant 
the  deeds  of  their  ancestors  "  (Essays,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
433-4) :  thus  reminding  us  of  the  early  Greek  poets. 


70  DEVELOPED  MUSIC. 

Kow  a  narrative  does  not  allow  repetitions  of  words, 
and,  by  implication,  does  not  allow  those  repetitions 
of  musical  phrases  in  which  repeated  words  are  ut- 
tered. A  concomitant  is  that  there  is  no  tendency 
towards  rhythm.  Though  there  by-and-by  arises  a 
metrical  form,  yet  the  rhythm  of  feet  in  the  verses  is 
too  rapid  to  lend  itself  to  the  rhythm  of  musical 
phrases.  And  now,  recognizing  that  this  original 
narrative-music,  allied  to  recitative,  does  not  tend  to- . 
wards  repeated  phrases  and  consequent  rhythm,  yet 
we  may  infer  that  it  possibly  gives  origin  to  a  higher 
type  of  music  by  the  importation  of  these.  A  simile 
used  in  the  preceding  pages  implied  that  a  new  char- 
acter may  be  given  to  a  simple  f  a"bric  by  superposing 
a  pattern,  though  the  two  are  alike  in  material,  and 
though  the  result  is  achieved  merely  by  complication 
of  the  same  apparatus.  Here  the  suggestion  arises 
that  possibly  there  began  an  occasional  superposing 
on  the  recitative,  of  the  repeated  phrases  and  the  ac- 
companying rhythm  above  described,  and  that  so  a 
species  of  melody  was  produced.  Or,  conversely,  it 
may  have  been  that  passages  of  recitative  came  to  be 
intercalated  in  the  choral  or  solo  forms  of  the  re- 
peated phrases.  In  either  way  it  seems  not  improb- 
able that  there  was  a  mutual  influence  conducive  to 
the  development  of  melody  proper. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  traces  of  development 
can  be  recognized.    The  first  step  is  early  indicated. 


DEVELOPED  MUSIC.  71 

After  repetition  of  the  same  simple  phrase  for  a 
length  of  time,  there  is  often  a  transition  to  another 
simple  phrase  which  is  similarly  repeated,  and  then, 
by-and-by,  a  return  to  the  first.  We  are  thus  shown 
the  germs  of  those  compoundings  characterizing  de- 
veloped music.  Repetition  of  a  phrase  or  of  a  clause 
is  perhaps  the  commonest  trait  in  melodies.  Taken 
by  itself  this  yields  that  intellectual  pleasure  which 
we  have  in  the  recognition  of  likeness — a  pleasure 
which,  though  lost  in  satiety  if  the  phrase  perpet- 
ually recurs,  is  an  appreciable  pleasure  when  it  re- 
curs once  or  twice  only.  Then  the  second  germ 
which  these  primitive  songs  or  chants  contain,  we 
see  in  the  transition  to  a  different  phrase,  which 
is  similarly  reiterated  to  weariness,  but  which,  in  de- 
veloped music,  is  dwelt  on  only  to  the  extent  needed 
for  yielding  the  pleasure  of  contrast.  Here  is  the 
beginning  of  those  multitudinous  effects  gained  by 
changes  of  theme,  now  simple  now  elaborate,  which 
composers  utilize.  A  further  advance  occurs  when 
the  same  phrase  is  repeated  in  a  higher  or  lower  part 
of  the  stave.  This  is  the  simplest  form  of  a  trait 
which,  as  a  means  to  enhanced  pleasure,  is  a  trait  of 
Art  in  general — the  union  of  likeness  with  difference. 
For  if  we  recognize  the  activity  of  the  perceptive 
faculties  at  large  as  being  pleasurable,  it  results  that 
along  with  the  pleasure  which  perception  of  similarity 
gives,  there  goes  the  pleasure  arising  from  concomi- 


72  DEVELOPED  MUSIC. 

tant  perception  of  dissimilarity:  the  volume  of  agree- 
able consciousness  is  increased.  Then,  in  pursuance 
of  the  same  principle,  there  comes  that  combination 
of  likeness  with  difference  which  is  achieved  by  minor 
variations  of  each  theme — divergences  yielding  pleas- 
ure from  the  simultaneous  recognition  of  the  agree- 
ment and  the  disagreement. 

To  trace  the  growing  complications  as  music  de- 
velops would  need  the  knowledge  of  a  composer,  and 
would  too  much  encumber  the  argument.  It  must 
suffice  here  to  note  that  the  gratification  due  to  per- 
ception of  similarity  is  gradually  extended  to  larger 
combinations  of  phrases  and  clauses  and  sentences; 
that  the  pleasure  caused  by  contrast  between  one 
complex  of  notes  and  another  comes  to  embrace 
longer  and  more  elaborate  complexes;  that  recogni- 
tions of  variety  in  unity  are  also  achieved  on  greater 
scales;  that  there  arise  the  likenesses  and  differences 
due  to  variations  of  strength,  variations  of  time, 
changes  of  key,  &c. ;  and  that,  simultaneously,  there 
arises  the  immense  collateral  development  of  har- 
mony: the  result  being  an  ever-growing  heteroge- 
neity. 

Next  we  have  to  note  a  gradual  increase  of  defi- 
niteness.  This  is  shown  in  several  ways.  There  are 
the  requirements  that  each  note  shall  occur  exactly 
in  its  place;  that  it  shall  have  the  right  pitch;  that 
the  intervals  shall  be  correct;  and  that  the  lengths 


DEVELOPED  MUSIC.  73 

of  bars  and  notes  shall  be  carefully  observed:  proof 
being  yielded  by  the  shock  that  a  wrong  note 
gives  and  the  annoyance  arising  from  a  defect  in 
time. 

Then,  again,  the  increasing  integration  is  vari- 
ously displayed.  While  the  whole  piece  is  held  to- 
gether by  subordination  to  its  key-note,  it  is  held 
together  by  the  relations  between  similar  phrases  as 
well  as  between  them  and  contrasted  phrases,  sever- 
ally raising  expectations  which  must  be  fulfilled;  and 
it  is  held  together  by  the  relations  of  its  larger  parts 
— as  when  after  a  theme  duly  elaborated  there  is 
change  to  another  theme  markedly  different  though 
congruous,  and  then  presently  a  return  to  the  origi- 
nal theme :  a  sense  of  incompleteness  arising  if  these 
divisions  are  not  all  there.  Thus  there  is  a  simul- 
taneous advance  in  heterogeneity,  in  integration,  and 
in  definiteness. 

But  now  after  noting  the  traits  of  evolving  music 
which  exemplify  the  traits  of  evolution  at  large,  let 
us,  so  far  as  we  may,  observe  how  there  arise  different 
kinds  of  music,  some  of  them  bearing  but  indistinct 
traces  of  their  origin.  We  saw  that  the  musical  ut- 
terances prompted  by  feeling  are  mostly  expressive 
of  simple  elation — an  overflow  of  good  spirits  such  as 
is  shown  by  children  dancing  around  and  chanting 
some  nursery  rhyme,  as  well  as  by  artisans  whistling 
or  humming  while  at  work ;  and  it  was  suggested  that 


74  DEVELOPED  MUSIC. 

from  this  association  of  pleasurable  feeling  with  vocal 
manifestations  of  it,  arises  the  vague  pleasure  caused 
by  musical  sounds  even  when  indistinctly  audible. 
This  connexion  between  spontaneous  vocalization  and 
agreeable  mood  of  mind,  is  unspecific  in  the  sense  that 
it  does  not  result  in  particular  musical  phrases.  The 
raised  feeling  prompts  vocal  movements  of  any  and 
every  kind,  just  as,  when  very  strong,  it  prompts  ir- 
regular dancing  about. 

But  though  vocal  utterances  of  raised  feeling  as- 
sume nearly  all  forms,  there  are  classes  of  feelings 
expressed  only  by  vocal  utterances  more  or  less  spe- 
cialized: instance  those  of  melancholy,  pity,  tender- 
ness, as  well  as  others  of  anger,  courage,  defiance, 
&c. :  a  truth  which  becomes  obvious  if  sympathetic 
words  are  uttered  in  tones  like  those  used  in  indig- 
nation. But  phrases  and  cadences  of  these  classes 
vary  much.  Many  persons  are  almost  incapable  of 
expressing  by  ascents  and  descents  of  voice  any  of  the 
gentler  feelings,  while  there  are  others  whose  modu- 
lations clearly  imply  their  presence;  and  it  is  evident 
that  combinations  of  tones  like  theirs  may  be  devel- 
oped into  others  which  are  still  more  expressive.  If, 
with  this  idea  in  mind,  Beethoven's  Adelaide,  or  some 
of  G  luck's  melodies,  be  contemplated,  many  of  the 
cadences  may  be  recognized  as  idealized  forms  of  the 
appropriate  emotional  utterances.  And  if  Mendels- 
sohn's "  Songs  without  Words  "  be  listened  to,  it  may 


DEVELOPED  MUSIC.  75 

be  perceived  that  some  of  the  musical  phrases  suggest 
sentiments  that  are  vaguely  conceivable. 

Here,  then,  are  implied  two  types  of  music,  the 
first  of  which,  expressing  pleasure  in  general,  is  not 
bound  to  certain  classes  of  figures,  and  hence  admits 
of  unlimited  expansion  and  variation;  and  the  second 
of  which,  expressing  feelings  more  or  less  special, 
must  use  figures  that  are  restricted  in  their  range.  It 
is  the  non-recognition  of  this  broad  distinction  which 
has  caused  most  of  the  opposition  my  views  have  met 
with. 

To  explain  why  certain  groups  of  notes  are  fitted 
or  unfitted  for  one  or  other  purpose,  seems  impos- 
sible. But  limiting  our  attention  to  the  great  mass 
of  music — the  music  of  exhilaration — we  may  recog- 
nize a  contrast  between  the  music  of  coarse  exhilara- 
tion and  the  music  of  refined  exhilaration.  In  a  post- 
script to  the  original  essay,  I  named  the  fact  that  if, 
after  creasing  a  piece  of  paper  and  then  opening  it 
out,  an  irregular  figure  be  made  with  ink  on  one  of 
the  folds  and  the  other  pressed  down  upon  it,  pro- 
ducing a  blotted  repetition,  a  certain  decorative  effect 
is  obtained  from  the  symmetry,  ugly  as  the  original 
line  may  be;  and  I  suggested  that,  in  like  manner, 
symmetrical  arrangements  of  ugly  musical  phrases 
yield  an  effect  attractive  to  the  uncultured:  musical 
doggerel,  we  may  call  it,  exemplified  in  music-hall 
songs  and  in  most  of  the  performances  which  please 


76  DEVELOPED   MUSIC. 

those  (well-dressed  and  ill-dressed)  who  stand  round 
bands  at  the  sea-side.  Turning  from  the  music  of 
coarse  exhilaration  we  note  that  whatever  be  the 
cause — probably  a  physiological  one — certain  succes- 
sions of  notes  and  phrases  are  intrinsically  agreeable, 
irrespective  of  effects  produced  by  their  combinations. 
Out  of  these  are  woven  the  musical  pieces  we  may 
distinguish  as  those  of  refined  exhilaration;  since, 
apart  from  the  beauties  of  symmetry,  and  contrast, 
and  structure  at  large,  their  component  phrases  taken 
singly  yield  some  pleasure,  though  they  do  not  ex- 
cite distinct  emotions.  As  instances  may  be  named 
many  of  Cherubim's  overtures  and  many  of  Mozart's 
sonatas:  compositions  in  which  there  is  little  beyond 
a  more  or  less  skilful  putting  together  of  musical  fig- 
ures that  are  individually  without  much  interest. 

Finally  we  come  to  music  of  the  highest  type — 
poetical  music.  Of  course  this  is  not  sharply  marked 
off  from  the  last  any  more  than  the  last  is  from  its 
predecessor;  for  in  the  music  of  refined  exhilaration 
there  may  be  used  phrases  and  figures  which,  though 
not  distinctly  emotional,  suggest  such  sentiments  as 
are  produced,  say,  by  beautiful  surroundings  or  the 
prospect  of  quiet  pleasures.  Beethoven's  "  Pastoral 
Symphony  "  may  be  named  in  illustration.  But  in 
the  highest  type  of  music  the  phrases,  cadences,  and 
larger  figures,  are  appropriate  to  stronger  emotions 
of  the  kinds  enumerated  above.  And  here  beyond  the 


DEVELOPED  MUSIC.  77 

pleasure  yielded  by  an  elaborated  pattern  having 
forms  pleasing  by  their  likenesses  and  unlikenesses, 
we  have  the  sympathetic  pleasure  yielded  by  these 
idealized  utterances  which  we  can  imagine  express- 
ing our  own  emotions,  had  we  the  requisite  musical 
genius.  In  addition  to  the  beauty  of  the  composition, 
there  is  the  beauty  of  the  components.  Of  illustra- 
tions, that  which  comes  first  to  mind  is  Beethoven's 
Septet;  and  I  may  join  with  this  a  piece  of  another 
class  which  is  undeservedly  neglected  —  Haydn's 
"  Seven  Last  Words." 

To  end  these  hints  towards  an  exposition  of  a  vast 
subject  let  me  now  bring  in  an  analogy.  Already  I 
have  said  or  implied  that  those  who  combat  the  hy- 
pothesis here  defended,  not  looking  at  things  from 
the  evolution  point  of  view,  do  not  bear  in  mind  that 
in  course  of  time  there  arise  complicated  products  out 
of  simple  germs.  See,  for  instance,  what  has  hap- 
pened with  the  clothing  of  birds.  Feathers  were 
originally  protective.  Saying  nothing  of  those  'form- 
ing the  wings,  which  fulfil  another  purpose,  it  is  clear 
that  those  covering  the  body  originally  had  for  their 
use,  and  still  have  in  chief  measure,  the  preservation 
of  heat.  Here  appearance  was  of  little  importance. 
Passing  over  cases  in  which  colours  that  aid  conceal- 
ment are  acquired,  we  see  that  very  generally  colours 
subserve  the  end  of  increasing  sexual  attractiveness: 
an  end  superposed  on,  and  quite  unlike,  the  original 


78  DEVELOPED  MUSIC. 

end.  And  occasionally  there  result  feathers  utterly 
unfit  for  the  original  end.  The  gigantic  ones  forming 
a  peacock's  tail,  with  their  brilliant  eye-spots,  might 
be  supposed  never  to  have  had  anything  to  do  with 
maintaining  warmth;  and  there  are  others,  as  those 
in  the  crest  of  a  Bird  of  Paradise,  which  have  almost 
lost  the  traces  of  a  structure  appropriate  for  covering. 
Yet,  undeniably,  they  are  all  modifications  of  pro- 
tective appendages.  Their  secondary  characters  have 
disguised  and  almost  obliterated  their  primary  ones. 
In  like  manner,  then,  it  has  happened  that  out  of 
phrases  and  cadences  of  emotional  utterance — some 
expressing  exhilaration  and  others  expressing  more 
special  feelings — there  have  been  evolved  in  the 
course  of  ages  musical  combinations,  some  character- 
ized by  idealized  forms  of  such  phrases  and  others 
showing  no  apparent  relation  to  such  phrases;  but  all 
of  them  woven  into  gorgeous  compositions  differing 
from  their  rudiments  as  much  as  the  plumage  of  a 
kingfisher  differs  from  that  of  a  sparrow. 


ESTIMATES  OF  MEN. 

Speaking  broadly,  we  may  say  that  the  world  is 
always  wrong,  more  or  less,  in  its  judgments  of  men 
— errs  by  excess  or  defect.  Judgments  are  deter- 
mined less  by  intellectual  processes  than  by  feelings; 
and  feelings  are  swayed  this  way  or  that  way  largely 
by  mere  personal  likes  and  dislikes,  or  by  the  desire 
to  express  authorized  opinions — to  be  in  the  fashion. 
Hence  a  way  of  discounting  opinions  is  desirable. 
Some  guidance  may  be  had  by  observing  their  os- 
cillations, and  noting  the  stages  in  their  oscillations 
which  at  the  time  being  they  have  reached. 

Let  me  re-state  this  thesis  by  setting  out  with  the 
truth  that  all  movement  is  rhythmical — that  of  opin- 
ion included.  After  going  to  one  extreme  a  reaction 
in  course  of  time  carries  it  to  the  other  extreme,  and 
then  comes  eventually  a  re-reaction.  This  is  clearly 
observable  in  the  case  of  reputations.  Time  was 
when  the  authority  of  Aristotle  was  supreme  and 
unquestioned.  Then  came  Bacon  and  the  reform  in 
philosophy  which  he  initiated:  the  result  being  that 
the  reputation  of  Aristotle  waned  and  the  reputation 
of  Bacon  became  great.    In  recent  days  the  over-esti- 


80  ESTIMATES  OF  MEN. 

mation  of  Bacon  has  been  followed  by  a  recoil,  end- 
ing in  an  under-estimation :  one  cause  being  that  men 
have  compared  his  ideas  with  those  of  our  time  in- 
stead of  with  those  of  his  own  time.  Meanwhile  the 
repute  of  Aristotle  has  been  rising  again  and  now 
seems  likely  to  become  undue.  This  rhythm  is  con- 
spicuously illustrated  in  the  case  of  Shakespeare,  who, 
highly  appreciated  by  contemporaries  (as  witness 
Ben  Jonson's  lines),  fell  afterwards  into  neglect,  and 
then,  during  the  present  century,  has  been  continually 
rising,  until  now  his  position  is  so  high  that  criticism 
is  practically  paralyzed  and  societies  occupy  them- 
selves with  the  minutiae  of  his  sentences. 

I  name  these  familiar  cases  merely  as  illustrating 
the  suggestion  that  we  may  usually  form  some  idea 
of  the  position  in  which  we  stand  in  presence  of  this 
rhythmical  movement:  recognizing  that  neither  ex- 
treme of  the  judgment  on  a  man  is  true,  and  then, 
looking  at  the  aggregate  evidence,  judging  where- 
abouts in  the  oscillation  we  are  at  the  time  being. 
Inspection  of  the  rhythm  may  lead  us  to  suspect  that 
the  reputation  of  Shakespeare  is  at  present  too  high. 
The  judgment  of  his  devoted  admirer  Ben  Jonson, 
who,  when  told  that  Shakespeare  never  blotted  out  a 
line,  remarked  that  he  would  have  done  better  to  blot 
a  thousand,  is  probably  nearer  the  mark  than  the 
judgment  now  current,  which  implies  the  belief  that 
everything  he  wrote  is  good.     For  to  any  one  un- 


ESTIMATES  OF  MEN.  81 

swayed  by  fashion,  it  is  manifest  that  amid  the  great 
mass  of  that  which  is  supremely  excellent,  there  are 
many  things  far  from  excellent.  Much  the  same  may 
be  said  of  Beethoven. 

An  illustration  from  our  own  days  will  give 
greater  definiteness  to  the  argument.  Early  in  the 
seventies  the  reputation  of  George  Eliot  reached  its 
zenith.  Soon  afterwards  it  began  to  decline  and  some 
few  years  ago  had  fallen  to  its  nadir.  Recently  a  re- 
action set  in.  Inspection  of  these  movements  will 
make  it  clear  that  if  the  estimate  of  thirty  years  ago 
was  in  excess,  that  of  five  years  ago  was  in  defect; 
and  that  hereafter  her  rank  will  be  considerably 
higher  than  now. 

Apart  from  particular  instances,  however,  the 
conclusion  is  that  we  ought  constantly  to  find  what 
are  the  needful  modifications  of  current  opinions — 
not  opinions  about  men  only  but  opinions  about  other 
things — by  contemplating  in  each  case  the  rhythm, 
and  trying  to  see  whereabouts  in  it  wTe  are:  feeling 
sure  that  the  opinion  which  prevails  is  never  quite 
right,  and  that  only  after  numerous  actions  and  reac- 
tions may  it  settle  into  the  rational  mean. 


STATE-EDUCATION. 

Early  in  life  it  became  a  usual  experience  with 
me  to  stand  in  a  minority — often  a  small  minority, 
approaching  sometimes  to  a  minority  of  one.  At  a 
time  when  State-education  was  discussed  more  as  a 
matter  of  speculative  interest  than  as  a  matter  of 
so-called  practical  politics,  I  found  myself  opposed  to 
nearly  everyone  in  expressing  disapproval — a  disap- 
proval which  has  continued  until  now,  though  with 
most  it  has  become  a  political  axiom  that  a  govern- 
ment is  responsible  for  the  mental  culture  of  citizens. 

In  the  forties  this  question  of  education  by  gov- 
ernmental agency  was  frequently  argued  between 
myself  and  a  valued  friend,  who  in  those  days  wrote 
letters  urging  that  Church-property  should  be  laid 
under  contribution  to  provide  means.  Holding  the 
views  I  did  even  at  that  time  respecting  the  limitation 
of  State-functions,*  I  opposed,  for  both  general  and 
special  reasons.  The  general  reason,  allied  to  reasons 
which  took  definite  shapes  at  a  later  time,  was  that 
society  is  a  product  of  development  and  not  of  manu- 

*  Set  forth  in  certain  letters  on  "  The  Proper  Sphere  of  Gov- 
ernment," originally  published  in  1842  and  republished  in  1843. 
82 


STATE-EDUCATION.  83 

facture.  The  special  reason,  harmonizing  with  this 
general  reason,  was  that  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand extends  from  the  material  sphere  to  the  men- 
tal sphere,  and  that  as  interference  with  the  supply 
and  demand  of  commodities  is  mischievous,  so  is 
interference  with  the  supply  and  demand  of  cul- 
tured faculty.  Many  years  later  my  friend  con- 
fessed that  his  experience  as  a  magistrate  in  Glouces- 
tershire had  changed  his  opinion.  It  had  shown 
him  that  education  artificially  pressed  forward, 
raising  in  the  labouring  and  artisan  classes  ambitions 
to  enter  upon  higher  careers,  led,  through  frequent 
disappointments,  to  bad  courses  and  sometimes  to 
crime.  The  general  belief  he  had  reached  was  that 
mischief  results  when  intellectualization  goes  in  ad- 
vance of  moralization — a  belief  which,  expressed  by 
him  in  other  and  less  definite  words,  at  first  startled 
me,  though  it  soon  became  clear  that  it  was  congruous 
with  the  views  I  had  often  urged. 

Here  I  am  not  about  to  enter  at  length  on  the 
general  question  of  State-education;  otherwise  I 
should  demur  to  the  assumption  that  any  government 
is  competent  to  say  what  education  should  be,  either 
in  matter,  manner,  or  order;  I  should  contest  its 
right  to  impose  its  system  of  culture  upon  the  citizen, 
so  that  under  penalty  for  disobedience  his  children 
may  be  moulded  after  its  approved  pattern;  and  I 
should  deny  the  equity  of  taking,  through  the  rates, 


84  STATE-EDUCATION. 

the  earnings  of  A  to  pay  for  teaching  the  children  of 
B.  I  should,  in  short,  protest  once  more  against  that 
political  superstition  which  has  replaced  the  divine 
right  of  kings  by  the  divine  right  of  parliaments. 
But  I  must  limit  myself  to  the  issue  implied  above — 
denying  the  commonly  supposed  connexion  between 
intellectual  culture  and  moral  improvement;  and 
giving  evidence  that  a  society  is  not  benefited  but  in- 
jured by  artificially  increasing  intelligence  without 
regard  to  character. 

To  measure  the  influence  for  good  or  evil  which 
a  forced  intellectual  culture  produces  on  a  nation, 
there  is  no  better  way  than  to  contemplate  the  teach- 
ings of  the  daily  Press,  and  to  observe  the  effects 
wrought.  An  extremely  apt  introduction  to  the  sub- 
ject has  recently  been  exhumed  from  the  pages  of  The 
Idler.  On  November  11,  1758,  Dr.  Johnson  wrote  as 
follows : — 

"  In  a  time  of  war  the  nation  is  always  of  one  mind,  engcr 
to  hear  something  good  of  themselves  and  ill  of  the  enemy. 
At  this  time  the  task  of  news  writers  is  easy.  They  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  tell  that  a  battle  is  expected,  and  after- 
wards that  a  battle  has  been  fought,  in  which  we  and  our 
friends,  whether  conquering  or  conquered,  did  all,  and  our 
enemies  did  nothing.  .  .  .  Among  the  calamities  of  war  may 
be  justly  numbered  the  diminution  of  the  love  of  truth  by  the 
falsehoods  which  interest  dictates  and  credulity  encourages.  A 
peace  will  equally  leave  the  warrior  and  relater  of  wars  destitute 
of  employment,  and  I  know  not  whether  more  is  to  be  dreaded 
from  streets  tilled  with  soldiers  accustomed  to  plunder,  or  from 
garrets  filled  with  scribblers  accustomed  to  lie." 


STATE-EDUCATION.  85 

A  century  and  a  half  seems  to  have  made  but  little 
difference.  Day  by  day  the  reports  of  the  South 
African  war  have  been  full  of  fictions,  exaggerations, 
garblings:  much  has  been  falsified,  much  suppressed. 
Instance  the  statement  made  soon  after  the  war  be- 
gan, in  October,  1899,  that  the  crops  of  the  Boers 
were  rotting  on  the  ground  (doubtless  originated  in 
London  by  one  who  forgot  that  our  autumn  corre- 
sponds to  their  spring),  and  which  was  followed  some 
months  later  by  the  statement  that  reaping  was  going 
on;  instance  the  fact  that  when  the  force  advancing 
to  relieve  Ladysmith  was  repulsed,  the  inhabitants 
were  described  as  receiving  the  news  with  equanim- 
ity (!),  while  in  due  time  there  came  a  letter  from 
The  Times  correspondent  in  Ladysmith  describing 
the  "  consternation  "  displayed;  instance  the  reports 
from  the  several  beleaguered  places  that  the  bom- 
bardments did  no  mischief  worth  mentioning,  and 
then  the  statement  made  by  Mr.  Ehodes  after  Kim- 
berley  was  relieved  that  about  120  wTere  killed  or 
wounded  during  the  siege.  Further  we  have  the  con- 
fession on  the  part  of  a  special  correspondent  that 
misrepresentation  was  an  established  policy. 

"  A  false  notion  of  loyalty  and  patriotism  exists  in  connec- 
tion with  this  campaign.  Men  are  branded  with  the  taint  of 
disloyalty  if  they  express  the  opinion  that  matters  are  assuming 
a  critical  aspect — unless  they  describe  a  defeat  as  a  victory." — 
The  Globe,  Feb.  26,  1900. 

And  then  another  correspondent,  Mr.  F.  Young,  him- 


86  STATE-EDUCATION. 

self  personally  concerned,  testified  that  the  military 
censorship  not  only  suppressed  facts  but  diffused  fic- 
tions. One  more  instance.  Of  the  Boers  concerning 
whom,  until  recently  exasperated  by  farm-burning 
and  women-driving,  the  accounts  given  by  captured 
officers  and  men  were  uniformly  good,  and  of  whom 
the  late  Sir  George  Grey  said — "  I  know  no  people 
richer  in  public  and  in  private  virtues  than  the 
Boers  " — of  these  same  Boers  Mr.  Kalph,  correspond- 
ent of  the  Daily  Mail,  wrote  that  "  they  are  neither 
brave  nor  honourable  " ;  they  are  "  cowardly  and 
dastardly  "  ;  "  semi-savage  "  ;  "  inhuman  "  ;  filled 
with  "  Satanic  premeditation,"  &cv 

And  thus  reports  went  on  during  the  winter,  the 
spring,  the  summer:  some  newspaper  readers  being 
made  increasingly  sceptical  by  these  manifest  un- 
truths, while  the  great  mass  greedily  swallowed,  as  in 
Johnson's  day,  reports  good  of  ourselves  and  ill  of  the 
enemy;  until  at  length  from  another  quarter  arrived 
an  example  of  Press-mendacity  striking  enough  to 
shake  the  general  faith.  There  came  first  the  sen- 
sational account  of  a  massacre  at  Pekin,  describing  in 
detail  the  stubborn  resistance  of  the  Europeans,  the 
desperate  hand-to-hand  encounters,  the  final  over- 
whelming of  the  small  band,  followed  by  particulars 
of  Chinese  atrocities;  and  then  there  came  in  a  few 
days  proof  that  this  circumstantial  account  was 
utterly  baseless — there  had   been  no   massacre,   no 


STATE-EDUCATION.  87 

atrocities.  Coming  home  to  the  public  m  a  more 
startling  way  than  had  the  multitudinous  contradic- 
tions concerning  events  in  South  Africa,  this  drew 
attention  to  the  habitual  falsification  of  news.  Proofs 
were  recalled  that  telegrams  were  largely  manufac- 
tured in  Fleet  Street:  four  words  being  sometimes  ex- 
panded to  40;  so  that,  as  writes  "  An  Old  Journal- 
ist "  in  The  Times  of  August  29,  1900,  "  brilliant  de- 
scriptions of  battle  scenes  filling  a  column  were 
evolved  from  20  or  30  words  of  telegraphy."  And 
the  explanation  of  the  system  was  that  the  public 
appetite  for  sensational  news  is  so  keen  that  journals 
are  compelled,  as  they  think,  in  pursuit  of  their  busi- 
ness-interests, to  vie  with  one  another  in  fictitious 
and  exaggerated  reports. 

To  the  foregoing,  written  in  1900,  let  me  now  add 
evidence  coming  in  December,  1901,  from  two  eye- 
witnesses— the  writer  of  Unofficial  Despatches,  Mr. 
Edgar  "Wallace,  and  the  writer  of  With  Rimingtony 
Capt.  L.  M.  Phillipps.  Though  these  two  take  oppo- 
site views  respecting  the  conduct  of  the  war — the 
journalist  advocating  greater  severity,  and  the  cap- 
tain greater  lenity — they  are  at  one  in  reprobating 
the  systematic  perversion  of  truth  resulting  from  the 
censorship.  Mr.  Wallace,  giving  to  the  Chief  Censor 
of  Lord  Roberts'  army  the  title  "  Lord  High  Mutila- 
tor of  Telegraphic  Despatches,"  states  that  while  the 
censor  would  not  object  to  an  "  unusually  optimistic  " 


88  STATE-EDUCATION. 

despatch,  he  would,  under  fear  of  the  commander-in- 
chief,  not  dare  to  pass  a  pessimistic  one,  however  true 
it  might  be  (p.  325).  Meanwhile  Captain  PhilHppa 
tells  us  that  the  financial  gang  "  had  the  press  in 
their  hands,  worked  the  wires,  and  controlled  and 
arranged  what  sort  of  information  should  reach  Eng- 
land .  .  .  '  grievances  '  such  as  would  arrest  Eng- 
land's attention  .  .  .  were  deliberately  invented"  (p. 
10 G)  .  .  .  the  Boer  mortality,  sickness,  devastation 
"  is  a  torture  long  and  slow;  the  agony  and  bloody 
sweat.  ...  It  is  most  important  that  the  situation 
should  be  realized  at  home,  for  if  it  were  the  con- 
duct of  the  war  would  be  changed  "  (p.  211).  Thus 
we  have  indisputable  proof  that  the  nation  has  been 
habitually  deluded  by  garbled  reports. 

And  now  observe  the  implications,  to  introduce 
which  I  have  set  forth  these  details.  London  daily 
journals  having  circulations  amounting  altogether  to 
probably  three  millions,  and  provincial  journals  hav- 
ing circulations  amounting  to  at  least  another  three 
millions,  have  been  daily  distributing  these  falsified 
reports  throughout  a  population  already  angered  by 
false  statements  derived  from  the  Cape  Press;  thus 
generating  feelings  of  savage  animosity,  which  were 
presently  exhibited  all  over  the  kingdom  in  brutal 
treatment  of  those  who  ventured  to  think  and  to  say 
that  the  right  was  not  all  on  our  side.  And  the  pas- 
sions thus  manifested  were  the  passions  of  those  who, 


STATE-EDUCATION.  89 

educated  by  the  State  up  to  the  level  of  newspaper- 
reading,  had  been  absorbing  every  day  the  self-glori- 
fications and  the  vilifications  of  the  enemy,  eagerly 
looked  for.  The  slumbering  instincts  of  the  bar- 
barian have  been  awakened  by  a  demoralized  Press, 
which  would  have  done  comparatively  little  had  not 
the  artificial  spread  of  intellectual  culture  brought 
the  masses  under  its  influence.  Says  the  Duke  in 
Measure  for  Measure,  "  There  is  scarce  truth  enough 
alive  to  keep  societies  secure" — a  saying  which, 
varied  to  suit  the  occasion,  becomes, — There  is  scarce 
truth  enough  alive  to  keep  societies  in  health.  For 
the  war-fever  which  has  broken  out  and  is  working 
immense  mischiefs,  not  abroad  only  but  in  our  social 
state,  has  resulted  from  daily  breathing  an  atmos- 
phere of  untruth.  Is  there  not  reason,  then,  for  the 
opinion  that  immense  evils  may  result  if  intellectual- 
ization  is  pushed  in  advance  of  moralization?  * 

*  Since  this  was  written  there  has  been  furnished  to  me  a 
marked  example  of  one  mode  in  which  public  judgments  have 
been  habitually  perverted:  the  witness  being  one  whose  long  ex- 
perience and  high  position  in  the  army  put  him  above  suspicion 
of  adverse  bias — Field -Marshal  Sir  Neville  Chamberlain.  He  says 
that  "Never  before  has  anything  approaching  to  such  wholesale 
and  reckless  destruction  or  abduction  of  families  been  enacted  by 
a  British  Army."  At  the  close  of  July  of  this  year  (1901)  he  sent 
to  the  Daily  Chronicle  a  letter  in  which  there  were  passages  akin 
to  the  above,  blaming  our  conduct  of  the  South  African  war. 
After  several  days'  silence,  leading  to  telegrams  of  inquiry,  he 
got  from  the  editor  a  proof  with  the  suggestion  that  certain  ad- 
verse passages  which  contained  the  pith  of  the  letter  should  be 
7 


90  STATE-EDUCATION. 

Other  evidence  pointing  to  this  conclusion  is  fur- 
nished by  the  spread  of  anarchism.  Weighed  down 
by  the  pressure  of  taxation  and  aggravated  by  the 
demands  of  militancy,  large  parts  of  the  populations 
on  the  Continent  live  in  a  state  of  chronic  discontent. 
The  more  cultured  among  them  cannot  fail  to  associ- 
ate the  miseries  they  bear  with  a  governmental  organ- 
ization which  lays  hands  on  their  resources  and  drafts 
into  the  army  hosts  of  their  younger  men;  and  they 
are  unable  or  unwilling  to  recognize  the  truth  that  a 
governmental  organization  of  some  kind  is  necessary, 
and  in  a  measure  beneficent.  Besides  the  constitu- 
tionally criminal,  those  who  are  led  into  these  erro- 
neous beliefs,  and  violent  acts  in  pursuance  of  them, 
are  the  educated.  Without  those  facilities  for  com- 
munication which  reading  and  writing  and  a  certain 
amount  of  knowledge  give  them,  there  could  not  be 
formed  these  schools  of  anarchy.  Here,  beyond  all 
doubt,  the  growth  of  intellectualization  in  advance 
of  moralization  has  done  enormous  mischief. 

We  may  with  certainty  say  that  intellectual  cul- 
ture increases  the  power  which  the  emotions  have  of 


omitted:  the  result  of  the  delay,  and  the  tacit  interdict,  being 
that  Sir  Neville  Chamberlain  published  the  letter  in  the  Man- 
chester Guardian.  Thus  hindrance  was  put,  as  it  has  all  along 
been  put,  to  the  publication  of  opinions  at  variance  with  those  of 
the  dominant  party:  while  those  of  the  dominant  party  have  been 
widely  diffused.  The  truth  has  been  suppressed  by  a  censorship 
at  home  as  well  as  by  a  censorship  in  the  field. 


STATE-EDUCATION.  91 

manifesting  themselves  and  obtaining  their  satisfac- 
tions —  intensifies  the  emotional  life.  Were  the 
higher  emotions  stronger  than  the  lower,  this  would 
be  an  advantage;  or  were  the  two  balanced  it  would 
not  be  a  disadvantage;  but,  unquestionably,  in  aver- 
age human  beings  the  lower  emotions  are  more  pow- 
erful than  the  higher:  witness  the  results  arising 
from  any  sudden  removal  of  all  social  restraints. 
Hence,  education,  adding  to  the  force  of  all  the  emo- 
tions, increases  the  relative  predominance  of  the 
lower,  and  the  restraints  which  the  higher  impose  are 
more  apt  to  be  broken  through.  There  is  a  greater 
liability  to  social  perturbations  and  disasters. 

"  So,  then,  for  the  sake  of  social  security  we  are 
to  keep  the  people  in  ignorance,"  will  be  the  excla- 
mation of  many  on  reading  the  above  paragraph. 
Widely  here,  as  universally  on  the  Continent,  the 
notion  is  that  we  must  either  aid  or  prevent.  There 
is  no  recognition  of  that  passive  policy  which  does 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  but  leaves  things  to 
take  their  natural  course.  What  has  been  said  above 
does  not  imply  that  the  working  classes  shall  be  kept 
in  ignorance,  but  merely  that  enlightenment  shall 
spread  among  them  after  the  same  manner  that  it  has 
spread  among  the  upper  and  middle  classes:  being 
privately  aided  so  far  as  philanthropic  feelings 
prompt;  for  such  feelings  and  their  results  are  parts 
of  the  normal  educational  agency,  operative  alike  on 


92  STATE-EDUCATION. 

giver  and  receiver.  But  now,  while  excluding  this 
false  interpretation,  let  me  note  a  strange  contrast. 
Social  security  is  thought  so  supreme  an  end  that  to 
achieve  it  citizens  may  rightly  be  deprived  of  their 
free  action  and  exposed  to  the  risks  of  death — may 
upon  occasion  be  seized,  made  to  fight,  and  perhaps 
shot  while  defending  the  country.  This  absolute  sub- 
ordination of  the  individual  to  the  society  is  in  these 
cases  not  condemned  as  unjust  or  cruel.  But  in  the 
case  before  us  it  is  thought  cruelly  unjust  that  for  the 
welfare  of  society  the  citizen  shall  be  left  without 
public  aid  in  rearing  his  offspring.  Social  security 
being  the  end  common  to  the  two  cases,  it  is  in  the 
one  thought  right  that  the  individual  shall  be  coerced 
to  the  extent  of  risking  his  life,  while  in  the  other 
it  is  thought  wrong  that  he  shall  be  left  to  do  his 
best  for  himself  and  children! — wrong  not  to  take 
other  people's  property  to  help  him! 

One  further  fact  may  be  emphasized.  If  supply 
and  demand  are  allowed  free  play  in  the  intellectual 
sphere  as  in  the  economic  sphere,  and  no  hindrance 
is  put  in  the  way  of  the  naturally  superior,  education 
must  have  an  effect  widely  different  from  that  de- 
scribed— must  conduce  to  social  stability  as  well  as  to 
other  benefits.  For  if  those  of  the  lower  ranks  are 
left  to  get  culture  for  their  children  as  best  they  may, 
just  as  they  are  left  to  get  food  and  clothing  for  them, 
it  must  follow  that  the  children  of  the  superior  will 


STATE-EDUCATION.  93 

be  advantaged :  the  thrifty  parents,  the  energetic,  and 
those  with  a  high  sense  of  responsibility,  will  buy  edu- 
cation for  their  children  to  a  greater  extent  than  will 
the  improvident  and  the  idle.  And  if  character  is  in- 
herited, then  the  average  result  must  be  that  the  chil- 
dren of  the  superior  will  prosper  and  increase  more 
than  the  children  of  the  inferior.  There  will  be  a 
multiplication  of  the  fittest  instead  of  a  multiplication 
of  the  unfittest. 


THE  CLOSING  HOUES. 

In  his  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium-Eater, 
De  Quincy  says  that  opium  exalted  his  appreciation 
of  music,  and  that  he  commonly  took  a  dose  before 
going  to  the  opera.  Accidentally  I  was  once  enabled 
to  furnish  a  testimony  of  allied  kind.  Thirty  or  forty 
years  ago,  at  times  when  my  nights,  always  bad,  had 
become  unusually  bad,  I  sometimes  took  a  dose  of 
morphia  (the  effect  of  which  lasts  two  days)  to  re- 
establish, so  far  as  might  be,  the  habit  of  going  to 
sleep.  On  one  of  these  occasions  it  happened  that  the 
day  after,  I  went  to  a  concert  at  which  was  performed 
Spohr's  Symphony,  The  Power  of  Sound.  Some  years 
before  I  had  heard  it  with  complete  indifference,  but 
now  I  listened  to  it  with  considerable  pleasure.  Part- 
ly my  sensibility  to  tones  was  more  acute,  and  partly 
there  was  an  increased  power  of  appreciating  their 
relations  and  the  complexes  formed  of  them. 

I  name  these  facts  as  suggesting  that  between  the 
feelings  of  early  life  and  those  of  late  life  there  is  a 
contrast  similar  to  that  between  the  feelings  when 
exalted  by  a  nervous  stimulant  and  the  feelings  in 
their  ordinary  intensity.  As  by  the  phlegmatic  the 
94 


THE  CLOSING  HOURS.  95 

elation  of  the  enthusiastic  can  never  be  experienced, 
so  in  the  latter  part  of  life  there  arises  an  inability  to 
receive  sensations  and  emotions  equally  vivid  with 
those  of  youth  and  early  manhood. 

These  familiar  contrasts  imply  a  contrast  which  is 
not  so  familiar.  Commonly  regarded  as  is  the  truth 
that  as  physical  strength  decreases  and  the  energies 
decline,  the  average  feelings  become  weaker  (I  say 
the  average  because  exceptions  may  be  pointed  out), 
there  is  not  commonly  drawn  an  obvious  corollary 
respecting  the  closing  stage.  Those  who  think  about 
death,  carrying  with  them  their  existing  ideas  and 
emotions,  usually  assume  that  they  will  have,  during 
their  last  hours,  ideas  and  emotions  of  like  vividness. 
It  is  true  that  remembered  cases  in  which  there  oc- 
curred incoherence  and  wandering  and  inability  to 
recognize  persons,  show  them  that  when  near  death 
the  thinking  faculty  is  almost  gone;  but  they  do  not 
fully  recognize  the  implication  that  the  feeling  fac- 
ulty, too,  is  almost  gone.  They  imagine  the  state  to 
be  one  in  which  they  can  have  emotions  such  as  they 
now  have  on  contemplating  the  cessation  of  life.  But 
at  the  last  all  the  mental  powers  simultaneously  ebb, 
as  do  the  bodily  powers,  and  with  them  goes  the  ca- 
pacity for  emotion  in  general. 

It  is,  indeed,  possible  that  in  its  last  stages  con- 
sciousness is  occupied  by  a  not  displeasurable  sense  of 
rest.    The  feelings  accompanying  life  and  all  the  con- 


96  THE  CLOSING  HOURS. 

comitant  desires  are  no  longer  conceivable,  for  to 
recall  them  into  consciousness  implies  some  mental 
energy.  There  remains  only  such  kind  of  feeling  as 
accompanies  entire  quiescence — one  which,  if  not  ab- 
solutely neutral,  verges  more  towards  the  pleasurable 
side  of  consciousness  than  towards  the  painful.  But 
however  this  may  be,  it  is  clear  that  in  normal  death, 
or  the  death  of  decay,  or  the  death  of  debility,  the 
sentient  state  is  the  farthest  possible  from  that  which 
accompanies  vigorous  life,  or  artificially  exalted  life, 
and  that  sensations  and  emotions  all  gradually  de- 
crease in  intensity  before  they  finally  cease.  Thus 
the  dread  of  dying  which  most  people  feel  is  unwar- 
ranted. 

It  seems  scarcely  needful  to  add  that  the  argu- 
ment does  not  apply  to  the  death  which  follows  vio- 
lence, or  that  produced  by  acute  disease.  In  such 
cases  the  closing  period  of  indifference  is  greatly 
abridged.  Up  to  within  a  very  short  time  of  the  end 
the  vital  energies  remain  sufficient  to  make  emotion 
possible. 


STYLE. 

Few  openly  reject  the  current  belief  that  a  good 
style  implies  linguistic  culture — implies  classical  edu- 
cation and  study  of  the  best  models.  The  belief  seems 
a  rational  one,  and,  often  repeated  as  it  is  by  those 
in  authority,  is  thought  beyond  question.  Neverthe- 
less it  is  an  invalid  belief.  Let  us  first  test  it  by  the 
principles  of  inductive  logic. 

Even  from  the  method  of  agreement,  which,  if 
used  alone,  yields  the  lowest  order  of  proof,  it  de- 
rives but  little  support.  The  great  mass  of  those  who 
have  had  the  discipline  which  a  University  gives  do 
not  write  well.  Only  here  and  there  in  this  large 
class  may  be  found  one  who  is  said  to  have  a  fine 
style:  for  the  rest  their  style  is  commonplace  when 
not  bad.  But  were  the  current  belief  true,  a  good 
style  should  be  the  rule  among  the  linguistically-cul- 
tured— not  the  exception.  Still  less  justified  is  the 
belief  when  tested  by  the  method  of  difference.  Pur- 
suance of  this  method  should  show  that  writers  who 
have  had  little  discipline  in  the  use  of  language  or 
none  at  all  do  not  write  well.  But  again  the  evi- 
dence fails.    Everyone  knows  that  from  Shakespeare 

97 


98  STYLE. 

downwards  many  good  writers  have  had  "  little  Latin 
and  less  Greek."  The  untruth  of  the  belief  is,  how- 
ever, best  shown  by  critical  examination  of  styles  sup- 
posed to  justify  it,  or  which  would  justify  it  were  it 
true.  Already  in  The  Study  of  Sociology,  after  giv- 
ing some  samples  of  incoherent  English  written  by 
a  Prime  Minister,  a  bishop,  and  a  head-master,  I 
have,  in  the  appendix,  subjected  to  analysis  two  sen- 
tences quoted  with  approval  by  Matthew  Arnold  from 
the  be-praised  Addison:  pointing  out  six  faults  in 
seven  lines.  Here  I  propose  to  continue  the  criticism 
of  classically-cultured  writers. 

The  preface  to  a  collection  of  "  golden  "  verse 

ought  surely  to  be  a  piece  of  silvern  prose — prose 

polished  and  without  flaws.    And  when  such  a  preface 

is  written  by  one  who  achieved  classical  honours  and 

has  spent  his  leisure  life  in  the  study  of  literature, 

something  approaching  perfection  is  to  be  expected. 

It  is  not  found,  however.     The  first  sentence  of  the 

preface  to  Mr.  Francis  Palgrave's  Golden  Treasury 

runs  thus: — 

"  This  little  Collection  differs,  it  is  believed,  from  others 
in  the  attempt  made  to  include  in  it  all-the  best  original  Lyrical 
pieces  and  Songs  in  our  language,  by  writers  not  living, — and 
none  beside  the  best." 

Whether  the  endeavour  to  sink  the  personal  in  the 
impersonal  by  using  the  expression  "  it  is  believed/' 
instead  of  "  I  believe,"  is  a  trait  of  good  style  may 


STYLE.  99 

"be  doubted;  since  there  is  given  to  the  reader's  rnind 
a  certain  needless  trouble  in  substituting  the  real 
meaning  for  the  meaning  expressed.  Passing  over 
this,  however,  let  us  look  at  the  essential  elements 
of  the  sentence.  We  are  told  that  the  collection  dif- 
fers from  others.  Now  a  difference  between  two  col- 
lections implies  inclusion  in  the  one  of  some  thing, 
or  quality,  or  trait,  not  included  in  the  other.  Here, 
however,  the  alleged  difference  consists  in  "  the  at- 
tempt made  to  include."  But  an  attempt  cannot 
form  part  of  a  collection.  An  attempt  is  neither  a 
thing,  nor  a  trait,  nor  a  quality,  by  possession  of 
which  the  contents  of  one  collection  can  be  made  un- 
like the  contents  of  another.  The  results  of  the  at- 
tempt may  make  collections  differ,  but  the  attempt 
itself  cannot  do  so.  After  passing  over  six  lines  we 
reach  the  second  paragraph,  which  opens  with  these 
words : — 

"  The  Editor  is  acquainted  with  no  strict  and  exhaustive 
definition  of  Lyrical  Poetry,  but  he  has  found  the  task  of 
practical  decision  increase  in  clearness  and  in  facility  as  he  ad- 
vanced with  the  work,  whilst  keeping  in  view  a  few  simple 
principles." 

One  question  suggested  by  this  sentence  is — Why  say 
"  the  task  of  practical  decision  "  ?  That  the  word 
practical  is  superfluous  becomes  manifest  if  we  ask 
what  would  be  the  task  of  theoretical  decision.  Fur- 
ther, this  clause  is  related  to  the  first  merely  by  sug- 
gestion, not  by  specified  connexion.    What  the  "  prac- 


100  STYLE. 

tical  decision  "  is  we  are  not  told,  but  are  left  to  guess. 
Again,  it  is  said  that  "  the  Editor  has  found  the  task 
increase  in  clearness  and  facility."  How  can  a  task 
increase  in  facility?  Facility  may  be  gained  by  one 
who  undertakes  a  task  and  perseveres,  but  the  task 
itself  remains  the  same.  So  that  this  sentence,  like 
the  other,  is  incoherent. 

The  third  paragraph  begins  with  these  words : — 

"  This  also  is  all  he  can  plead  in  regard  to  a  point  even 
more  liable  to  question; — what  degree  of  merit  should  give 
rank  among  the  Best." 

You  may  question  a  statement,  an  opinion,  or  a  be- 
lief, for  in  any  one  of  these  something  is  asserted; 
but  you  cannot  question  a  point,  for  a  point  does  not 
assert  anything.  That  meaning  is  given  by  the  words 
which  follow  is  no  adequate  defence.  Fragments  of 
sentences  are  allowable ;  but  then  they  must  be  avow- 
edly fragments.  A  good  style  does  not  permit  a  sen- 
tence which  by  its  structure  professes  to  be  complete, 
but  which  is  meaningless  without  an  appendix. 

And  then  the  fourth  paragraph  opens  as  fol- 
lows : — 

"It  would  obviously  have  been  invidious  to  apply  the 
standard  aimed  at  in  this  Collection  to  the  Living." 

Now  the  words  "  to  apply  the  standard  aimed  at  " 
are  incongruous.  If  you  apply  a  standard,  the  impli- 
cation is  that  the  standard  is  some  species  of  measure; 
but  if  this  is  the  kind  of  standard  intended,  then  how 


STYLE.  101 

do  you  aim  at  it?  A  thing  aimed  at  must  be  some- 
thing at  a  distance;  but  if  the  standard  in  question  is 
applied  as  a  measure,  it  cannot  be  something  distant. 
The  words  do  not  suggest  a  consistent  idea,.  •  ; 

The  Academy  for  January  l.>,  IS'JS,  contains  a 

notice  of  "  A  Forgotten  JSTovel  by  James  Anthony 

Froude  ";  and  on  page  79  extracts  from  it  are  given. 

The  first  begins  thus : — 

"  I  take  it  to  be  a  matter  of  the  most  certain  experience  in 
dealing  with  boys  of  an  amiable  infirm  disposition,  that  exactly 
the    treatment    they  receive    from  you    they  will    deserve. " 

[Shadows  of  the  Clouds,  p.  22.] 

Xot  dwelling  on  the  opinion  expressed,  which  by  the 
words  "  certain  "  and  "  exactly  "  is  made  far  too  defi- 
nite to  fit  facts  of  the  kinds  implied,  I  go  on  to  say 
that  the  sentence  is  ill-composed.  One  of  its  defects 
is  verboseness.  The  first  twelve  words  are  equivalent 
to  "  Experience  proves."  If  it  be  said  that  the  twelve 
are  more  emphatic  than  the  two,  I  reply  that  the  two 
are  quite  emphatic  enough  for  the  occasion.  Then 
the  phrases  are  anything  but  classic.  The  phrase  "  I 
take  it  to  be,"  though  common  as  a  colloquialism,  is 
scarcely  fit  for  literary  use.  Why  not  "  I  think  it 
is"?  Instead  of  a  direct  statement  an  indirect  one 
may  fitly  be  adopted  if  the  reader's  thought  is  thus 
economized,  or  if  variety  of  form  is  needed ;  but  here 
an  irrelevant  idea,  "  taking,"  suggested  instead  of  the 
relevant  idea  "  thinking,"  has  to  be  mentally  correct- 


102  STYLE. 

ed.  Nor  is  the  expression  "  a  matter  of  "  to  be  ap- 
proved. A  word  used  in  many  relations  calls  np  in- 
definite thoughts  that  have  to  be  shaped  by  the  con- 
text; implying  a  .suspension.  In  the  various  expres- 
sions—" It  is  a  matter  of  tact,"  "  that's  a  matter  of 
course/''"  What's  the  matter  "?  "  it  will  cost  a  matter 
of  £50/'  we  see  that  the  word  "  matter,"  divorced 
from  its  primary  meaning,  arouses  vague  ideas  which 
the  mind  has  to  eke  out  thus  or  thus  according  to  the 
adjacent  words.  Now  from  a  good  style  are  excluded 
all  words  having  unsettled  connotations;  save  where 
indefiniteness  is  intended,  which  it  is  not  in  this  case. 
A  more  serious  objection  is  that  the  phrase  "  I  take 
it  to  be,"  is  incongruous  with  the  phrase  "  most  cer- 
tain experience  ";  for  the  first  does  not  indicate  posi- 
tiveness  whereas  the  second  is  absolute.  "We  cannot 
with  propriety  link  a  statement  implying  some  doubt 
with  a  statement  implying  no  doubt.  It  is  absurd  for 
a  man  out  in  a  thunder-shower  to  say  "  I  take  it  this 
is  rain,"  or,  "I  think  it  rains";  and  it  is  similarly 
absurd  to  join  the  expression  "  I  think  "  or  its  equiv- 
alent to  a  statement  of  a  fact  said  to  be  "  most  cer- 
tain." Then,  again,  why  "most  certain"?  In  care- 
less talk  union  of  the  two  words  is  common,  but 
in  writing  regarded  as  specially  good  we  ought  not 
to  find  a  word  connoting  absoluteness  preceded  by  a 
word  connoting  degree.  Finally,  and  chiefly,  comes 
the  objection  that  the  sentence  is  of  uncertain  mean- 


STYLE.  103 

ing.  To  say  of  the  boys  indicated  "  that  exactly  the 
treatment  they  receive  from  you  they  will  deserve  " 
is  to  say  that  if  you  treat  them  mildly  they  will  de- 
serve mild  treatment^  and  that  if  you  treat  them 
harshly  they  will  deserve  harsh  treatment.  Surely 
this  cannot  be  meant !  In  any  case,  however,  the  sen- 
tence has  the  fatal  defect  that  it  leaves  the  reader 
in  doubt. 

Another  example  is  furnished  by  the  apostle  of 
culture,  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold.  On  the  page  of  The 
Academy  preceding  that  from  which  I  have  just 
quoted,  there  is  a  laudatory  essay  on  him,  under  the 
title  "  Reputations  Reconsidered."  In  it  is  repro- 
duced one  of  his  sentences  with  this  introduction: — 
"  His  own  judgment  was  perpetually  guided  by  the 
principles  laid  down  in  a  famous  passage  beginning : — 

'  There  can  be  no  more  useful  help  for  discovering  what 
poetry  belongs  to  the  class  of  the  truly  excellent,  and  can 
therefore  do  us  most  good,  than  to  have  always  in  one's  mind 
lines  and  expressions  of  the  great  masters,  and  to  ^pply  them 
as  a  touchstone  to  other  poetry."'  [Essays  in  Criticism,  2nd 
ser.  p.  16.] 

My  first  remark  is  that  the  phrase  "  useful  help  "  con- 
ceals a  pleonasm.  A  help  is  defined  as  a  thing  which 
aids  or  assists,  and  a  thing  which  does  that  is  a  useful 
thing;  so  that  a  "useful  help"  is  a  useful  useful 
thing.  Instead  of  "  no  more  useful  help  "  he  should 
have  written  "  no  better  help."    We  come  next  to  the 


104:  STYLE. 

clause — "  what  poetry  belongs  to  the  class  of  the  truly 
excellent."  Why  all  these  words?  Whatever  be- 
longs to  the  class  of  the  truly  excellent  is  necessarily 
truly  excellent.  Why  then  speak  of  the  class?  The 
phrase  should  be : — "  what  poetry  is  truly  excellent." 
Then,  again,  the  clause  "  to  apply  them  as  a  touch- 
stone "  is,  to  say  the  least,  awkward.  Surely  it  should 
be  "  to  apply  them  as  touchstones."  Once  more,  what 
is  the  use  of  the  final  words  "  to  other  poetry  "  1  The 
first  part  of  the  sentence  has  already  implied  that 
"  other  poetry  "  is  the  thing  to  be  tested.  Hence, 
leaving  out  intermediate  clauses,  the  statement  is  that 
for  discovering  what  poetry  is  "  truly  excellent  "  cer- 
tain tests  should  be  applied  "  to  other  poetry  " !  To 
convey  the  intended  meaning  the  sentence  should 
have  run: — There  can  be  no  better  helps  for  discover- 
ing what  poetry  is  truly  excellent,  and  can  therefore 
do  us  most  good,  than  lines  and  expressions  of  the 
great  masters  kept  always  in  mind  and  applied  as 
touchstones.  Or  otherwise : — There  is  no  better  way 
of  discovering  what  poetry  is  truly  excellent,  and 
can  therefore  do  us  most  good,  than  to  keep  always 
in  mind  lines  and  expressions  of  the  great  masters 
and  apply  them  as  touchstones.  Thirteen  words  are 
saved  and  the  meaning  definitely  expressed. 

In  defence  it  will  perhaps  be  said  that  these  faulty 
sentences  have  been  picked  out  and  are  exceptional. 
This  is  untrue.     As  the  references  imply,  they  have 


STYLE.  105 

not  been  sought  for.  The  quotations  from  Mr.  Pal- 
grave  are  respectively  the  first  sentence  of  his  preface 
to  The  Golden  Treasury  and  the  first  sentences  of  the 
next  three  paragraphs;  and  beyond  reading  that  pref- 
ace I  have  read  absolutely  nothing  of  his.  The  quo- 
tation from  Mr.  Froude  is  the  opening  sentence  of 
certain  passages  given  by  his  admiring  reviewer.  And 
the  sample  of  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold's  writing  which 
I  have  analyzed  is  the  only  prose  sentence  his  eulo- 
gist reproduces.  A  fair  inference  is  that  sentences 
similarly  faulty  are  common  in  the  works  of  these 
three  authors. 


STYLE   CONTINUED. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  styles  free  from  such 
defects  as  I  have  pointed  out,  are  therefore  to  be 
classed  as  good  styles.  I  am  far  from  saying  or  im- 
plying this.  Other  traits  must  be  possessed — aptness 
of  words,  variety  of  form,  freshness  of  metaphor,  eu- 
phony— traits  which,  as  I  know  to  my  regret,  innate 
faculty  alone  can  achieve.  My  position  is  that  a  style 
cannot  be  redeemed  by  any  or  all  of  these  traits  if  its 
sentences  are  incoherent,  or  contain  superfluities  and 
duplications  of  meaning.  Avoidance  of  defects  of 
construction  is  a  primary  requisite;  and  praise  cannot 
be  given  to  a  culture  which,  promising  to  insure  a 
good  style,  does  not  insure  its  first  element. 

It  seems  strange  that  the  current  a  priori  conclu- 
sion respecting  the  effects  produced  by  the  study  of 
languages  and  by  familiarity  with  good  models,  is 
not  verified  a  posteriori.  The  absence  of  verifica- 
tion emphasizes  the  French  saying,  "  The  Style  is 
the  Man." 

A  personal  experience  has  strengthened  my  belief 
in  this  saying.  More  than  half-a-century  ago  some 
106 


STYLE   CONTINUED,  107 

incident  raised  in  me  the  inquiry  why  certain  words 
and  collocations  of  words  are  more  effective  than 
others.  Up  to  that  time  I  had  paid  not  the  least  at- 
tention to  style.  But  the  problem  then  presented  led 
me  to  consider  it  from  a  psychological  point  of  view. 
Glances  into  works  on  the  subject  yielded  but  little 
insight :  the  maxims  I  met  with  were  purely  empirical. 
The  result  was  an  investigation  which  ended  in  the 
composition  of  an  essay  on  "  Force  of  Expression  " — 
an  essay  which  was  refused  by  the  editor  of  a  long- 
since  deceased  periodical,  Fraser's  Magazine.  Ten 
years  later  this  essay,  somewhat  improved,  was  pub- 
lished in  The  Westminster  Review  under  the  title 
"  The  Philosophy  of  Style  " :  the  editor's  title,  not 
mine.  One  of  the  conclusions  set  forth,  along  with 
the  reasons  supporting  it,  was  that  words  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  origin  (I  use  the  name  spite  of  Mr.  Freeman, 
since  to  call  them  "  English  "  words  would  here  cause 
confusion)  are  more  effective  than  words  of  Latin 
origin.  Now  this  belief,  common  among  others  and 
strengthened  in  me  on  finding  it  justified  by  a  gen- 
eral principle,  ought  to  have  been  specially  operative 
on  my  style.  But  recently,  when  revising  First  Prin- 
ciples, I  was  struck  by  the  fact  that  it  has  not  been 
at  all  operative:  the  language  used  in  that  work  is 
markedly  latinized.  Of  course,  dealing  largely  as  the 
work  does  with  abstract  and  general  ideas,  lack  of 
Anglo-Saxon   words    expressing    them,    necessitated 


108  STYLE   CONTINUED. 

adoption  of  words  derived  from  Latin  and  Greek. 
But  I  found  many  places  where  words  of  home-origin 
might  have  been  used  instead  of  words  of  foreign 
origin.  It  was  clear  that  the  current  maxim,  verified 
though  it  was  by  my  own  investigation,  had  in  very 
small  measure  influenced  me  when  writing. 

And  this  comparative  absence  of  influence  is  ex- 
plicable enough  now  that  I  remember  how  little  I 
have  been  guided  by  other  conclusions  set  forth  in 
the  essay  named-— conclusions  which  I  hold  still,  as 
strongly  as  when  they  were  drawn.  They  have  never 
been  present  to  me  when  writing.  From  moment  to 
moment  such  words  and  forms  of  expression  as  habit 
had  made  natural  to  me,  were  used  without  thought 
of  their  conformity  or  nonconformity  to  the  princi- 
ples I  had  espoused.  Occasionally,  indeed,  when  re- 
vising a  manuscript  or  a  proof,  one  of  these  principles 
has  been  recalled  and  has  dictated  the  substitution  of 
a  word,  or  the  search  for  a  brief  phrase  to  replace  a 
long  one.  But  the  effect  has  been  extremely  small. 
The  general  traits  of  my  style  have  remained  un- 
changed, notwithstanding  my  wish  to  change  some 
of  them.  There  is  substantial  truth  in  the  French 
saying.  Varying  it  somewhat,  we  may  say — style 
is  organic.  Doubtless  organization  may  be  modified, 
but  the  function  like  the  structure  retains  its  funda- 
mental characters. 

After  reading  the  above  paragraphs  the  reader 


STYLE   CONTINUED.  109 

will  be  astonished  when  I  say  that  I  have  never  stud- 
ied style.  He  will  think  the  assertion  flatly  contradicts 
much  that  I  have  just  written.  Nevertheless  the 
statement  is  true  in  its  broad  sense.  The  essay  men- 
tioned, on  "  Force  of  Expression/' which  had  its  origin 
in  a  psychological  query,  of  course  covered  but  a  small 
part  of  the  subject.  Though  when  published  its  title 
was  changed,  at  the  editor's  instigation,  to  "  The  Phi- 
losophy of  Style,"  the  substance  remained  the  same; 
and  I  was  presently  blamed  by  him  because  it  con- 
tained as  he  said  "  only  the  backbone  of  the  subject." 
As  was  thus  implied,  the  essay  ignores  those  traits  of 
style  which  give  quality,  distinction,  or  colour;  and 
having  set  forth  the  psychological  conclusions  at 
which  I  had  arrived,  I  thought  nothing  about  such 
traits.  It  never  occurred  to  me  either  before  or  since 
to  take  any  author  as  a  model.  Indeed  the  thought 
of  moulding  my  style  upon  the  style  of  any  one  else 
is  utterly  incongruous  with  my  constitutional  disre- 
gard of  authority.  Nor  have  I  at  any  time  examined 
the  writing  of  this  or  that  author  with  the  view  of 
observing  its  peculiarities.  Any  criticisms  I  have 
passed,  any  opinions  I  have  formed,  have  been  en- 
tirely incidental.  Defects  such  as  those  above  in- 
stanced have  indeed  often  drawn  my  attention — at- 
tention which  is  kept  ever  awake  by  criticism  of  my 
own  writing;  but  beyond  remarking  such  defects  in 
passing,  my  observation  of  style  has  been  limited  to 


110  STYLE   CONTINUED. 

recognition  of  conspicuous  traits  which  I  like  or  dis- 
like. I  have  been  repelled  by  the  ponderous,  in- 
volved structure  of  Milton's  prose;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  I  have  always  been  attracted  by  the  fin- 
ished naturalness  of  Thackeray.  And  from  the  ap- 
plause of  Ruskin's  style  I  have  dissented  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  too  self-conscious — implies  too  much 
thought  of  effect.  In  literary  art,  as  in  the  art  of  the 
architect,  the  painter,  the  musician,  signs  that  the 
artist  is  thinking  of  his  own  achievement  more  than 
of  his  subject  always  offend  me. 

Here,  perhaps,  I  may  fitly  say  of  my  own  style 
that  from  the  beginning  it  has  been  unpremeditated. 
The  thought  of  style  considered  as  an  end  in  itself, 
has  rarely  if  ever  been  present:  the  sole  purpose  being 
to  express  ideas  as  clearly  as  possible  and,  when  the 
occasion  called  for  it,  with  as  much  force  as  might  be. 
Let  me  add  that  some  difference  has  been  made  by 
the  practice  of  dictation.  Up  to  1860  my  books  and 
review-articles  were  written.  Since  then  they  have 
all  been  dictated.  There  is  a  prevailing  belief  that 
dictation  is  apt  to  cause  diffuseness,  and  I  think  the 
belief  is  well  founded.  It  was  once  remarked  to  me 
by  two  good  judges — the  Leweses — that  the  style  of 
Social  Statics  is  better  than  the  style  of  my  later 
works,  and,  assuming  this  opinion  to  be  true,  the  con- 
trast may  I  think  be  ascribed  to  the  deteriorating 
effect  of  dictation.    A  recent  experience  strengthen* 


STYLE   CONTINUED.  Ill 

me  in  this  conclusion.  When  finally  revising  First 
Principles,  which  was  dictated,  the  cutting  out  of 
superfluous  words,  clauses,  sentences,  and  sometimes 
paragraphs,  had  the  effect  of  abridging  the  work  by 
fifty  pages — about  one-tenth. 


MEYEKBEEK. 

An  illustration  of  that  rhythm  of  opinion  com- 
mented upon  some  pages  back,  is  furnished  by  the 
reputation  of  Meyerbeer — once  so  great,  now  so 
small.  At  one  time  Liszt  maintained  that  he  stood 
head  and  shoulders  above  the  rest :  "  the  rest "  no 
doubt  meaning  composers  then  living;  while  Heine 
wrote — "  By  this  work  \_Les  Huguenots^  Meyerbeer 
has  won,  never  again  to  lose,  his  "citizenship  in  the 
eternal  city  of  fine  minds,  in  the  Jerusalem  of  celes- 
tial art."  At  present  his  name  is  scarcely  heard. 
Les  Huguenots  is  occasionally  performed;  but  among 
those  musically  educated  I  have  found  none  who 
knew  anything  of  his  music,  and  some  who  hardly 
knew  his  name.  There  seems  no  escape  from  this 
violent  action  and  reaction,  and  when  men  have  been 
raised  too  high  they  must  pay  the  penalty  of  falling 
too  low.  But  the  judicially  minded  may,  in  the  way 
already  indicated,  discount  prevailing  opinions  and 
form  reasonable  estimates.  When  one  once  so  high- 
ly lauded  comes  to  be  neglected  and  spoken  of  con- 
temptuously, we  may  be  sure  that  the  under-estimate 
errs  as  did  the  over-estimate,  and  from  the  passing 
112 


MEYERBEER.  113 

phase  of  under-estimation  may  judge  approximately 
where  the  true  place  lies.  Thus  judged,  Meyerbeer 
should  unquestionably  stand  much  higher  than  at 
present. 

He  is  characterized  as  "  theatrical/'  with  the  tacit 
implication  that  he  produces  his  effects  by  display  and 
noise.  Was  my  knowledge  of  his  music  derived  only 
from  hearing  his  operas  fifty  years  ago,  this  charge, 
made  by  those  whom  the  prevailing  fashion  has  car- 
ried away,  might  have  influenced  me;  but  my  opinion 
is  largely  based  upon  familiarity  with  his  music  as 
arranged  for  the  piano,  in  which  the  theatrical  ele- 
ment is  not  present.  Being  thus  enabled  to  judge, 
I  am  not  afraid  to  say  that  the  opinion  expressed  by 
Liszt  was  much  nearer  to  the  mark  than  is  the  cur- 
rent opinion.  Among  faults  alleged  against  him  one 
is  that  he  is  given  to  arpeggios  and  scale-passages. 
Now  compositions  which,  instead  of  musical  thoughts, 
give  us  combinations  of  notes  implying  no  thoughts, 
always  offend  me,  and  hence  I  was  surprised  at  this 
assertion.  Scale-passages  especially  annoy  me:  sug- 
gesting that  the  composer,  "  gravelled  for  lack  of  mat- 
ter," runs  upstairs  to  find  an  idea,  and  being  disap- 
pointed comes  down  again.  Wishing  to  see  whether 
arpeggios  and  scale-passages  are  really  more  frequent 
in  Meyerbeer  than  in  others,  I  requested  a  lady- 
pianist  who  is  with  me  to  count  the  number  of 
them  in  the  first  20  pages  of  three  of  his  operas, 


114  MEYERBEER. 

and  in  three  of  Mozart's  operas.     The  results  were 

these : — 

Roberto  il  Diavolo,  25  scale-passages,  20  arpeggios. 
LeProphetc,  18  "  41         " 

Les  Huguenots,        15  "  22         " 

making  58  of  the  one  and  83  of  the  other.  In  con- 
trast with  these  there  were  in  Mozart's — 

Don  Juan,  60  scale-passages,  CI  arpeggios. 

Zauberflbte,  57  "  10         " 

Nozzc  di  Figaro,      58  "  36         " 

making  a  total  of  175  scale-passages  and  77  arpeg- 
gios. So  that  in  equal  spaces  Meyerbeer  has  151  of 
these  mechanical  successions  and  Mozart  253.  Thus 
brought  to  the  test  of  numbers  the  charge  is  effectu- 
ally disposed  of:  the  "classical"  composer  Mozart 
being  in  a  far  greater  degree  open  to  it. 

Then  there  is  the  complaint,  partly  coincident 
with  the  last,  that  his  ideas  are  commonplace.  This, 
too,  surprised  me  when  I  met  with  it,  for  I  am 
impatient  of  hackneyed  musical  ideas.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  to  test  a  composer's  originality,  I  have,  while 
listening,  observed  whether  I  could  often  anticipate, 
or  partially  anticipate,  the  phrases  that  were  coming, 
or  something  like  them,  and  when  I  could,  have  dis- 
counted  my  estimate  of  him.  But  in  this  case,  as  in 
the  preceding  one,  the  comparison  with  Mozart,  in- 
stead of  proving,  disproves  the  allegation.  When 
having  played  to  me  Mozart's  Sonatas  I  find  myself 


MEYERBEER.  115 

exclaiming  "  Stop  "  or  "  Skip  ":  the  result  being  that 
not  more  than  one-third  of  the  movements  are 
marked  as  worth  playing:  my  feeling  respecting  the 
others  being  that  they  consist  of  familiar  figures 
strung  together  in  a  new  order.  When  listening  to 
Meyerbeer's  operas  as  arranged  for  the  piano,  this 
impression  is  not  produced.  Even  in  parts  which  are 
merely  accompaniments  to  stage-action,  though  there 
may  be  little  of  interest,  there  is  generally  much  that 
is  fresh — very  few  hackneyed  phrases. 

But  my  chief  reason  for  ranking  Meyerbeer  high 
is  that  he  combines,  better  than  any  composer  I  have 
heard,  the  two  requisite  elements  in  fine  music — dra- 
matic expression  and  melody.  In  the  scene  between 
Raoul  and  Valentine  in  Les  Huguenots,  he  succeeds 
in  doing  that  which  "Wagner  tries  to  do  and,  as  I 
think,  without  success.  Notwithstanding  all  that  has 
been  said  against  him,  I  shall  continue  to  applaud 
Meyerbeer  until  there  is  shown  to  me  some  work  in 
which  truth  of  expression  and  melodic  quality  are 
better  united  than  they  are  in  "  Kobert,  toi  que 
j'aime." 


THE  PUKSUIT  OF  PKETTINESS. 

Criticisms  on  the  lives  of  our  neighbours  are 
abundant  enough,  and  some  of  them  turn  upon  the 
lack  of  proportion  their  lives  show — now  undue  de- 
votion to  business,  now  want  of  useful  occupation, 
now  absorption  in  a  favourite  pursuit,  and  so  on. 
But  while  the  art  of  living  is  thus  recognized  as  a 
subject  which  concerns  everyone," there  is  no  deliber- 
ate study  of  it:  haphazard  thoughts  occupy  the  place 
of  rational  conclusions.  None  try  to  estimate  the 
relative  values  of  ends — how  much  energy  may  "fitly 
be  expended  in  achieving  this  class  of,  satisfactions, 
and  how  much  in  achieving  that  class.  Choice  is  made 
without  any  pre-conception  of  the  need  for  giving 
each  kind  of  mental  or  bodily  activity  its  share,  and 
only  its  share,  in  the  aggregate  activity.  The  result 
is  that  all  lives  are  more  or  less  distorted — usually 
very  much  distorted. 

This  general  remark  is  preliminary  to  a  special 
remark.  There  is  one  pursuit  which  nearly  all  sup- 
pose may  be  carried  on  without  limit — the  pursuit  of 
beauty;  or  rather,  the  pursuit  of  prettiness.  Women 
116 


THE  PURSUIT  OF  PRETTINESS.  117 

particularly,  by  the  daily  expenditure  of  their  time, 
imply  the  belief  that  the  chief  business  of  life  is  to 
please  the  eye.  From  the  American  lady  whose  idea 
seems  to  be — Men  must  work  that  women  may  dress, 
down  to  the  British  kitchen-maid,  whose  pleasure  dur- 
ing the  week  is  in  the  thought  of  vying  with  her  mis- 
tress on  Sunday,  the  ambition  which  goes  before  all 
others  is  to  satisfy  the  aesthetic  want;  or  rather,  to 
obtain  the  admiration  which  is  a  concomitant,  or  ex- 
pected concomitant. 

For  referring  to  these  familiar  facts  the  excuse 
here  made  is  that  they  are  parts  of  much  larger  facts. 
Originating  as  do  these  feelings  concerned  with  visi- 
ble beauty  in  the  desire  for  sex-admiration,  and  asso- 
ciated as  they  become  with  a  desire  for  admiration 
in  general,  their  influence  pervades  all  actions.  A 
motive  which  prompts  the  sacrifices  shown  us  by  the 
cramped  feet  of  the  Chinese  women  and  the  stran- 
gled waists  of  their  European  sisters,  necessarily 
forms  a  dominant  element  in  consciousness  at  large, 
and  necessarily  affects  daily  life  in  innumerable  ways. 
Given  the  implied  mental  attitude,  and  the  question 
— "  How  will  it  look?"  is  certain  to  be  a  question  that 
perpetually  comes  to  the  front.  If  even  bones  are 
bent  in  the  effort  to  obtain  admiration,  it  is  inevitable 
that  there  will  be  a  moulding  of  conduct  in  all  ways 
with  the  like  aim.  Appearance  will  tend  ever  to  be- 
come a  primary  end  and  use  a  secondary  end;  as  with 


118  THE  PURSUIT  OF  PRETTINESS. 

the  savage  who   struts  about  in  a  mantle  in  fine 
weather  but  takes  it  off  when  it  rains. 

As  already  said,  it  is  not  these  immediate  results 
but  the  remoter  results  to  which  attention  needs  di- 
recting. I  do  not  refer  only  to  such  remoter  results 
as  the  injuries  to  health  caused  by  making  dress  a 
thing  to  look  pretty  in  rather  than  a  thing  to  be  warm 
in — dress  which,  sufficient  at  one  part  of  the  day,  at 
another  part  leaves  wide  surfaces  bare;  but  I  refer 
to  the  ways  in  which  this  making  of  appearance  an 
end  supreme  over  other  ends,  affects  the  house  at 
large  and  the  course  of  domestic  affairs.  The  cottage- 
wife  whose  small  window  is  so  choked  with  flowers 
that  little  light  comes  in,  is  not  likely  to  understand 
the  consequent  evils  if  they  are  pointed  out;  but  the 
lady  to  whom  you  explain  that  light  is  an  important 
factor  in  the  maintenance  of  health — so  important 
that  patients  on  the  southern  side  of  a  hospital  re- 
cover faster  than  those  on  the  northern  side — and 
that  therefore  the  sitting  in  darkened  rooms  is  detri- 
mental, proves  no  more  amenable  to  reasoning.  The 
welfare  of  the  carpet  is  an  end  she  thinks  more  im- 
portant than  extra  health  to  her  family.  That  the 
polished  floor,  bordering  the  carpet,  often  causes  mis- 
chiefs— bruises,  sprains,  dislocations — and  that  even 
when  no  such  mischiefs  result  there  is  the  perpetual 
fear  which  prompts  careful  stepping,  are  not  reasons 
sufficient  to  counterbalance  in  her  mind  the  reason 


THE  PURSUIT  OF  PRETTINESS.  119 

that  the  polished  floor  looks  well.  "With  the  furni- 
ture, too,  it  is  the  same.  The  choice  has  obviously 
been  determined  mainly  by  the  thought  of  appear- 
ance and  very  little  by  the  thought  of  comfort.  Here 
in  the  bay-window  is  a  seat  having  its  surface  cut  out 
into  flowers  in  high  relief;  and  all  around  are  the 
chairs,  some  of  the  fashionable  type,  some  archaic  in 
form,  and  others  having  pretty  carved  patterns,  but 
nearly  all  unpleasant  to  sit  in — anti-caller  chairs  they 
might  be  named. 

So  with  the  numerous  pretty  things,  or  things  sup- 
posed to  be  pretty,  which  burden  the  tables,  the  minor 
pieces  of  furniture,  the  brackets,  and  so  on,  including 
such  absurdities  as  paper-knives  with  fret-work  han- 
dles. The  pleasure  derived  from  them,  whether  by 
owner  or  guest,  is  practically  nominal:  there  is  little 
beyond  the  consciousness  that  there  are  pretty  things 
all  about.  Meanwhile,  leaving  out  the  question  of  orig- 
inal cost,  they  are,  in  their  multitude,  constant  sources 
of  vexation.  The  doings  of  careless  housemaids  entail 
disturbances  of  temper  which  form  a  large  set-off  to 
any  gratifications  yielded.  Not  only,  to  carry  out  Ba- 
con's conception,  does  a  man  who  marries  give  hostages 
to  fortune,  but  also  he  who  accumulates  objects  of 
value;  for  each  affords  occasions  for  Fortune's  malice. 

And  then,  after  all,  this  too-eager  pursuit  of  aes- 
thetic satisfactions  defeats  itself.  Beauty  is  not  at- 
tained by  filling  a  room  with  beautiful  things.     The 


120  THE  PURSUIT  OF  PRETTINESS. 

total  effect  of  a  room  so  filled  is  destroyed  by  the  sepa- 
rate effects  of  its  contents.  These  distract  attention 
from  one  another,  and  in  their  totality  distract  atten- 
tion from  the  room.  You  may  have  an  artistic  in- 
terior or  you  may  have  a  museum,  but  you  cannot 
have  both.  It  is  with  the  domestic  artist  as  with  art- 
ists at  large — painters,  architects,  and  others — the 
usual  error  lies  in  excess  prompted  by  undue  desire 
for  admiration.  And  here,  indeed,  we  come  upon  the 
further  fault  implied  by  this  absorbing  pursuit  of 
aesthetic  ends:  there  is  a  betrayal  of  a  moral  attitude 
of  an  inferior  kind.  Eagerness  for  applause  when 
made  conspicuous,  lowers  in  the  minds  of  others  the 
estimate  of  one  who  shows  it.  And  very  often  it  is 
manifest  that  this  eagerness  is  the  predominant  mo- 
tive. Illustrations  meet  us  everywhere.  Over-orna- 
mented rooms  are  even  more  numerous  than  over- 
dressed women. 

But  returning  from  this  digressive  criticism,  I  will 
add  only  that  the  way  in  which  the  aesthetic  end  is 
made  to  dominate  over  other  ends  of  more  impor- 
tance, might  be  illustrated  at  length  from  the  dining- 
table ;  beginning  with  the  choice  of  a  cook  not  for  her 
culinary  skill  but  for  her  ability  to  make  pretty 
dishes;  passing  on  to  the  acquirement  of  a  taste  for 
imperfectly-cooked  vegetables,  because  sufficient 
cooking  would  destroy  their  bright  green  (I  state 
facts) ;  and  in  various  ways  showing  how  palatableness 


THE  PURSUIT  OF  PRETTINESS.  121 

and  digestibility  are  sacrificed  to  a  trivial  and  transi- 
tory achievement  of  good  appearance.  But  enforce- 
ment of  the  thesis  has  been  carried  far  enough.  The 
general  proposition  that  there  is  no  due  proportioning 
of  the  various  ends  of  life,  has  been  exemplified  in 
the  more  special  proposition  that  the  aesthetic  ends 
occupy  far  too  large  an  area  of  consciousness. 

By  all  means  let  people  have  around  a  few  beau- 
tiful things  on  which  the  eyes  may  dwell  with  pleas- 
ure day  after  day;  but  let  not  life  be  distorted  by 
the  distracting  of  attention  from  essentials.  Here  are 
parents  whose  duty  it  is  to  fit  children  for  carrying 
on  life,  but  who,  guided  by  mere  tradition  or  not  even 
that,  have  bestowed  scarcely  a  thought  on  education 
rationally  considered.  Here  are  people  required  to 
take  part  in  the  direction  of  social  affairs  by  their 
votes,  who  are  still  guided  by  the  crudest  supersti- 
tions— "  good-for-trade  "  fallacies  and  the  like — who 
never  dream  of  fitting  themselves  for  their  functions 
as  citizens.  And  on  all  sides  are  those  who  ignore  the 
natural  world  around,  animate  and  inanimate,  the  un- 
derstanding of  which  in  its  essential  principles  con- 
cerns alike  the  right  conduct  of  life  and  the  concep- 
tion of  human  existence.  Meanwhile  endless  care 
and  thought  are  daily  bestowed  on  a  multiplicity  of 
things  which  are  expected  to  bring  admiration; 
though,  whether  things  worn  or  things  displayed  as 
ornaments,  they  as  often  as  not  do  the  reverse. 


PATEIOTISM. 

Were  any  one  to  call  me  dishonest  or  untruthful 
he  would  touch  me  to  the  quick.  Were  he  to  say 
that  I  am  unpatriotic,  he  would  leave  me  unmoved. 
"  What,  then,  have  you  no  love  of  country?  "  That 
is  a  question  not  to  be  answered  in  a  breath. 

The  early  abolition  of  serfdom  in  England,  the 
early  growth  of  relatively-free  institutions,  and  the 
greater  recognition  of  popular  claims  after  the  decay 
of  feudalism  had  divorced  the  masses  from  the  soil, 
were  traits  of  English  life  which  may  be  looked  back 
upon  with  pride.  When  it  was  decided  that  any  slave 
who  set  foot  in  England  became  free;  when  the  im- 
portation of  slaves  into  the  Colonies  was  stopped; 
when  twenty  millions  were  paid  for  the  emancipa- 
tion of  slaves  in  the  West  Indies;  and  when,  however 
unadvisedly,  a  fleet  was  maintained  to  stop  the  slave- 
trade;  our  countrymen  did  things  worthy  to  be  ad- 
mired. And  when  England  gave  a  home  to  political 
refugees  and  took  up  the  causes  of  small  states  strug- 
gling for  freedom,  it  again  exhibited  noble   traits 

which  excite  affection.    But  there  are  traits,  unhap- 
122 


PATRIOTISM.  123 

pily  of  late  more  frequently  displayed,  which  do  the 
reverse.  Contemplation  of  the  acts  by  which  Eng- 
land has  acquired  over  eighty  possessions — settle- 
ments, colonies,  protectorates,  &c. — does  not  arouse 
feelings  of  satisfaction.  The  transitions  from  mis- 
sionaries to  resident  agents,  then  to  officials  having 
armed  forces,  then  to  punishments  of  those  who  re- 
sist their  rule,  ending  in  so-called  "  pacification  " — 
these  processes  of  annexation,  now  gradual  and  now 
sudden,  as  that  of  the  new  Indian  province  and  that 
of  Barotziland,  which  was  declared  a  British  colony 
with  no  more  regard  for  the  wills  of  the  inhabiting 
people  than  for  those  of  the  inhabiting  beasts — do 
not  excite  sympathy  with  their  perpetrators.  Love 
of  country  is  not  fostered  in  me  on  remembering 
that  when,  after  our  Prime  Minister  had  declared 
that  we  were  bound  in  honour  to  the  Khedive  to 
reconquer  the  Soudan,  we,  after  the  re-conquest, 
forthwith  began  to  administer  it  in  the  name  of  the 
Queen  and  the  Khedive — practically  annexing  it; 
nor  when,  after  promising  through  the  mouths  of 
two  Colonial  Ministers  not  to  interfere  in  the  in- 
ternal affairs  of  the  Transvaal,  we  proceeded  to  in- 
sist on  certain  electoral  arrangements,  and  made 
resistance  the  excuse  for  a  desolating  war.*     Nor 

*  We  continue  to  hear  repeated  the  transparent  excuse  that 
the  Boers  commenced  the  war.  In  the  far  west  of  the  U.S., 
where  every  man  carries  his  life  in  his  hand  and  the  usages  of 


124:  PATRIOTISM. 

does  the  national  character  shown  by  a  popular  ova- 
tion to  a  leader  of  filibusters,  or  by  the  according 
of  a  University  honour  to  an  arch-conspirator,  or  by 
the  uproarious  applause  with  which  undergraduates 
greeted  one  who  sneered  at  the  "  unctuous  rectitude  " 
of  those  who  opposed  his  plans  of  aggression,  appear 
to  me  lovable.  If  because  my  love  of  country  does 
not  survive  these  and  many  other  adverse  experiences 
I  am  called  unpatriotic — well,  I  am  content  to  be  so 
called. 

To  me  the  cry — "  Our  country,  right  or  wrong!  " 
seems  detestable.  By  association  with  love  of  coun- 
try the  sentiment  it  expresses  gains  a  certain  justifica- 
tion. Do  but  pull  of!  the  cloak,  however,  and  the 
contained  sentiment  is  seen  to  be  of  the  lowest.  Let 
us  observe  the  alternative  cases. 

Suppose  our  country  is  in  the  right — suppose  it 
is  resisting  invasion.  Then  the  idea  and  feeling  em- 
bodied in  the  cry  are  righteous.  It  may  be  effectively 
contended  that  self-defence  is  not  only  justified  but  is 
a  duty.  Now  suppose,  contrariwise,  that  our  country 
is  the  aggressor — has  taken  possession  of  others'  ter- 
ritory, or  is  forcing  by  arms  certain  commodities  on 
a  nation  vdiich  does  not  want  them,  or  is  backing 
up  some   of  its   agents  in  "  punishing  "   those  who 

fighting  are  well  understood,  it  is  held  that  he  is  the  aggressor 
who  first  moves  his  hand  towards  his  weapon.  The  application 
is  obvious. 


PATRIOTISM.  125 

have  retaliated.  Suppose  it  is  doing  something 
which,  by  the  hypothesis,  is  admitted  to  be  wrong. 
What  is  then  the  implication  of  the  cry  ?  The  right 
is  on  the  side  of  those  who  oppose  us ;  the  wrong  is 
on  our  side.  How  in  that  case  is  to  be  expressed 
the  so-called  patriotic  wish?  Evidently  the  words 
must  stand — "  Down  with  the  right,  up  with  the 
wrong !  "  ¥ow  in  other  relations  this  combination 
of  aims  implies  the  acme  of  wickedness.  In  the 
minds  of  past  men  there  existed,  and  there  still  ex- 
ists in  many  minds,  a  belief  in  a  personalized  prin- 
ciple of  evil — a  Being  going  up  and  down  in  the 
world  everywhere  fighting  against  the  good  and 
helping  the  bad  to  triumph.  Can  there  be  more 
briefly  expressed  the  aim  of  that  Being  than  in  the 
words — "  Up  with  the  wrong  and  down  with  the 
right "  ?  Do  the  so-called  patriots  like  the  endorse- 
ment? 

Some  years  ago  I  gave  expression  to  my  own 
feeling — anti-patriotic  feeling,  it  will  doubtless  be 
called — in  a  somewhat  startling  way.  It  was  at  the 
time  of  the  second  Afghan  war,  when,  in  pursuance 
of  what  were  thought  to  be  "  our  interests,"  we  were 
invading  Afghanistan.  News  had  come  that  some 
of  our  troops  were  in  danger.  At  the  Athenaeum 
Club  a  well-known  military  man — then  a  captain  but 
now  a  general — drew  my  attention  to  a  telegram 
containing  this  news,  and  read  it  to  me  in  a  manner 


126  PATRIOTISM. 

implying  the  belief  that  I  should  share  his  anxiety. 
I  astounded  him  by  replying — "  When  men  hire 
themselves  out  to  shoot  other  men  to  order,  asking 
nothing  about  the  justice  of  their  cause,  I  don't  care 
if  they  are  shot  themselves." 

I  foresee  the  exclamation  which  will  be  called 
forth.  Such  a  principle,  it  will  be  said,  if  accepted, 
would  make  an  army  impossible  and  a  government 
powerless.  It  would  never  do  to  have  each  soldier 
use  his  judgment  about  the  purpose  for  which  a  bat- 
tle is  waged.  Military  organization  would  be  para- 
lyzed and  our  country  would  be  a  prey  to  the  first 
invader. 

Not  so  fast,  is  the  reply.  For  one  war  an  army 
would  remain  just  as  available  as  now — a  war  of  na- 
tional defence.  In  such  a  war  every  soldier  would  be 
conscious  of  the  justice  of  his  cause.  He  would  not 
be  engaged  in  dealing  death  among  men  about  whose 
doings,  good  or  ill,  he  knew  nothing,  but  among  men 
who  were  manifest  transgressors  against  himself  and 
his  compatriots.  Only  aggressive  war  would  be  nega- 
tived, not  defensive  war. 

Of  course  it  may  be  said,  and  said  truly,  that  if 
there  is  no  aggressive  war  there  can  be  no  defensive 
war.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  one  nation  may  limit 
itself  to  defensive  war  when  other  nations  do  not.  So 
that  the  principle  remains  operative. 

But  those  whose  cry  is — "  Our  country,  right  or 


PATRIOTISM.  127 

wrong!  "  and  who  would  add  to  our  eighty-odd  pos- 
sessions others  to  be  similarly  obtained,  will  contem- 
plate with  disgust  such  a  restriction  upon  military 
action.  To  them  no  folly  seems  greater  than  that  of 
practising  on  Monday  the  principles  they  profess  on 
Sunday. 


SOME  LIGHT  ON  USE-INHERITANCE. 

The  parable  of  the  mote  and  the  beam  has  appli- 
cations in  the  sphere  of  science  as  in  other  spheres. 
One  striking  instance  of  its  aptness  is  furnished  by 
the  controversy  between  the  neo-Darwinians  and  the 
neo-Lamarckians — to  use,  for  the  nonce,  two  inap- 
propriate but  convenient  names.  Contending  for  the 
sufficiency  of  natural  selection,  those  of  the  Weis- 
mann  school  say  to  their  antagonists — Where  are 
your  facts?  (deliberately  ignoring,  by  the  way,  sundry 
facts  that  are  assignable).  To  these  the  rejoinder 
made  by  the  believer  in  use-inheritance  may  fitly  be 
— Where  are  your  facts?  If  the  one  insists  upon 
inductive  proof  the  other  may  also  do  this,  and  there 
is  no  inductive  proof  whatever  of  natural  selection. 
Of  the  effects  of  artificial  selection  the  evidence  is 
overwhelming,  but  of  the  effects  of  natural  selection 
none  is  forthcoming.  Nature  cannot  select  as  a 
breeder  does  with  a  view  to  increasing  some  one  trait, 
but  can  select  only  those  individuals  which,  by  the 
aggregate  of  their  traits,  are  the  best  fitted  for  living. 
Until  the  production  of  one  species  by  natural  selec- 
128 


SOME  LIGHT  ON  USE-INHERITANCE.  129 

tion  is  shown,  there  is  not  even  the  beginning  of  in- 
ductive proof.  On  the  other  hand  inductive  proof 
of  the  use-inheritance  doctrine  is  not  wholly  wanting. 
Yet,  perpetually,  the  neo-Darwinians  say  to  the  neo- 
Lamarckians — Where  are  your  facts? 

The  controversy  yields  a  further  illustration  of 
the  way  in  which  men  who  see  clearly  the  defects  in 
their  opponents'  hypotheses  cannot  see  the  like  de- 
fects in  their  own  hypotheses.  The  doctrine  of  use- 
inheritance  is  rejected  because  of  inability  to  "  con- 
ceive any  means  "  by  which  a  modification  produced 
in  an  organ,  can  produce  a  correlated  modification 
in  the  germ  of  a  descendant.  Yet  the  alternative 
hypothesis  is  accepted  notwithstanding  a  kindred  in- 
ability which  is  certainly  not  less  and  may  be  held 
much  greater.  If  Weismann's  view  is  true,  such  a 
structure  as  a  peacock's  tail-feather  implies  over 
300,000  determinants.  Multiply  that  by  the  number 
of  such  feathers  and  add  those  of  the  body-feathers, 
as  well  as  those  of  all  the  parts  of  all  the  organs,  and 
then  imagine  the  number  of  determinants  which  must 
be  contained  in  the  microscopic  sperm-cell.  Further, 
imagine  that  in  the  course  of  the  developmental 
transformations,  each  determinant  finds  its  way  to  the 
place  where  it  is  wanted!  Surely  to  "conceive  any 
means  "  by  which  these  requirements  may  be  ful- 
filled, is  not  a  smaller  difficulty  if  it  is  not  a  greater. 

Thus  far  I  have  dealt  with  preliminaries  needful 


130  SOME  LIGHT  ON   USE-INHERITANCE. 

for  understanding  that  which  is  now  to  follow.  Ma- 
ture presents  us  with  certain  phenomena  showing  con- 
clusively that  structural  processes  may  be  effected  by 
some  play  of  unseen  agencies;  though  the  mode  in 
which  they  can  be  effected  is  inconceivable.  Two  in- 
stances near  akin  will  suffice. 

The  beauty  of  snow-crystals  has  filled  many  with 
delight,  but  few  have  speculated  about  the  strange 
facts  implied  by  their  forms.  Though  infinitely  va- 
ried, they  are  all  of  hexagonal  type  in  the  arrange- 
ments of  their  parts,  and  they  are  absolutely  sym- 
metrical. If  one  of  the  rays  bears  at  a  certain  spot 
a  projection  on  one  side  there  is  a  corresponding  equal 
projection  on  the  other  side;  and  on  every  ray 
throughout  the  aggregate  there  are  identical  pairs  of 
appendages.  If  in  one  place  there  is  a  complex  ap- 
pendage there  are  like  complex  appendages  at  all  of 
the  answering  places.  How  is  this  symmetry 
achieved?  We  have  no  alternative  but  to  suppose 
that  as  the  snow-crystal  descends  quietly  through  the 
upper  air  charged  with  watery  vapour,  accretion  of 
a  molecule  of  water  at  one  point  is  instantly  fol- 
lowed by  accretions  at  all  the  corresponding  points, 
and  that  this  is  effected  by  the  coercive  agency  of  the 
entire  aggregate.  Polar  forces  are  said  to  constitute 
the  agency;  but  of  these  forces  we  know  nothing. 
The  molecular  actions  by  which  those  beautiful  struc- 
tures are  built  up  arc  inconceivable. 


SOME  LIGHT  ON  USE-INHERITANCE.  131 

Contemplate  now  a  more  wonderful  phenomenon 

of  the  same  order.    Everyone  has  from  time  to  time 

observed  on  a  bedroom  window  after  a  sharp  frost, 

a  film  of  crystallized  water  covering  the  insides  of 

the  panes,  and  everyone  has  admired  the  foliaceous 

forms  assumed:  few,  however,  pausing  to  think  how 

such  forms  can  originate.    In  Nature  for  February  7, 

1901,  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney  gives  a  striking  account 

of  such  structures  produced  not  on  a  window  but  on 

a  pavement. 

"They  form  divergent  groups,  like  the  sticks  of  a  partly 
opened  fan  .  .  .  groups,  often  half  a  yard  in  diameter,  com- 
posed of  frond-like  radiating  tufts,  made  up  of  thin  stems  or 
acicular  crystals  (often  some  four  inches  long  and  about  the 
thickness  of  a  bodkin)  beautifully  curved :  this  almost  invariable 
bending  of  the  '  blades '  being  the  most  marked  characteristic. 
They  resemble  very  delicate  seaweeds,  dried  and  displayed  on 
a  card  as  an  ornamental  group." 

On  considering  the  actions  producing  these  ar- 
rangements, we  are  obliged  to  conclude  that  the 
crystallization  goes  on  in  each  part  under  the  con- 
trol of  all  other  parts.  If  the  union  of  water-mole- 
cules into  crystals  took  place  at  every  point  inde- 
pendently, or  under  local  influences  only,  there  could 
not  be  that  subordination  of  the  details  to  the  whole 
which  produces  the  symmetrical  frond-like  structure. 
We  must  assume  that  while  forming,  the  entire  ag- 
gregate of  crystals  coerces  the  molecules  in  each 
place,  while  these  in  their  turn  join  the  rest  in 
coercing  those  in  every  "other  place.     On  the  one 


132  SOME  LIGHT  ON  USE-INHERITANCE. 

hand  it  is  impossible  to  deny  this  orderly  subordina- 
tion of  parts  to  the  whole,  and  the  reactive  influ- 
ence on  the  whole  exercised  by  each  part;  and 
yet,  on  the  other  hand,  we  cannot  "  conceive  any 
means  "  by  which  these  marvellous  structural  pro- 
cesses are  effected.  The  thing  is  done  but  it  is  im- 
possible to  imagine  how  it  is  done. 

The  bearing  of  these  cases  upon  the  doctrine  of 
use-inheritance  is  obvious.  We  are  shown  that  im- 
possible though  it  may  be  to  conceive  how  any  struc- 
tural modification  in  one  part  of  an  organism  can 
affect  the  sperm-cells  or  germ-cells  in  such  way  as  to 
give  their  product  a  proclivity  towards  a  correspond- 
ing structure,  yet  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose 
that  they  are  thus  affected.  That  the  play  of  forces 
by  which  such  a  relation  is  established  is  unimagina- 
ble, is,  as  we  here  see,  no  reason  for  asserting  that 
there  does  not  exist  such  a  play  of  forces. 

And,  indeed,  when  we  call  to  mind  those  advances 
in  molecular  physics  and  the  physics  of  the  ether 
which  have  immensely  exalted  our  ideas  of  the  pro- 
cesses everywhere  going  on,  we  may  perceive  that 
the  hypothesis  of  use-inheritance  is  not  at  all  incon- 
gruous with  known  facts.  Now  that  by  electric  waves 
signals  are  made  without  wires  a  thousand  miles 
away;  now  that  Rontgen  rays  are  shown  to  penetrate 
various  substances  opaque  to  light;  now  that  from 
uranium  and  other  bodies  are  found  to  emanate  spe- 


SOME  LIGHT  ON  USE-INHERITANCE.  133 

cial  classes  of  rays  which  are  able  temporarily  to  en- 
dow other  kinds  of  matter  with  like  powers  of  radio- 
activity; now  when  we  are  shown  that  besides  that 
agitation  of  molecules  constituting  heat,  the  mole- 
cules of  solid  substances  give  and  receive  other  orders 
of  oscillations;  we  may  suspect  that  the  molecular 
influences  permeating  living  bodies  transcend  our 
conceptions.  It  is  probable  that  each  group  of  spe- 
cially-arranged molecules  composing  the  constitu- 
tional unit  of  an  organism,  is  a  centre  from  which 
there  radiate  the  undulations  produced  by  each  of  its 
multitudinous  components;  and  that  such  undula- 
tions, diffused  throughout  the  organism,  affect  the 
corresponding  components  of  other  such  units:  tend- 
ing to  produce  like  oscillations  and  congruous  struc- 
tures. We  may  infer  that  there  ever  goes  on  a  pro- 
cess like  that  above  implied,  under  which  the  entire 
aggregate  coerces  into  harmonious  forms  all  the  mi- 
nute molecular  aggregates  composing  it,  while  each 
of  these  has  its  share  in  modifying  the  rest;  and  that 
thus  any  local  change  of  structure  becomes  a  cause 
of  change  in  all  the  constitutional  units,  and,  among 
others,  those  contained  in  sperm-cells  and  germ-cells. 
Moreover  if ,  as  elsewhere  suggested  (Biology,  §§  54d, 
97/),  there  is  a  circulation  of  protoplasm,  this  uni- 
versal assimilation  of  characters  must  be  greatly  facil- 
itated. Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  the  remarkable 
phenomena  above  described  make  it  clear  that  in- 


134         SOME  LIGHT  ON  USE-INHERITANCE. 

ability  to  "  conceive  any  means  "  by  which  acquired 
characters  impress  themselves  on  the  reproductive 
elements,  is  no  adequate  reason  for  assuming  that 
they  cannot  do  this. 

Let  me  add  that  much  more  simply,  and  still  more 
conclusively,  may  this  objection  raised  by  the  neo- 
Darwinists  to  the  hypothesis  of  use-inheritance,  be 
disposed  of.  Huyghens  rejected  the  theory  of  gravi- 
tation. What  was  his  reason?  He  said  that  such  an 
attraction  as  was  implied  could  not  be  explained  by 
any  principles  of  mechanics.  That  is  to  say,  he  could 
not  "  conceive  any  means  "  by  which  the  mutual  in- 
fluence of  the  attracting  bodies  could  be  effected. 
Nevertheless  the  theory  of  gravitation  was  estab- 
lished by  irrefragable  proofs,  and  has  long  been  uni- 
versally accepted. 

Of  course  the  foregoing  paragraphs  should  form 
a  part  of  The  Principles  of  Biology.  But  as,  in  1899, 
I  issued  a  finally-revised  edition  of  that  work,  and 
see  no  probability  that  I  shall  ever  be  able  to  issue 
another,  I  decide  to  include  them  here. 


PAKTY-GOVEKNMENT. 

There  is  a  truth,  familiar,  to  every  one,  over 
which  I  often  marvel — that  tremendous  results  fre- 
quently follow  small  and  apparently  irrelevant  causes. 
In  The  Study  of  Sociology,  Chapter  XIII,  I  have 
pointed  out  that  the  organic  and  super-organic  sci- 
ences illustrate  in  an  eminent  degree  what  I  there 
called  "  fructifying  causation."  In  the  phenomena 
they  deal  with,  the  "  multiplication  of  effects,"  seen 
in  Evolution  at  large,  is  transcendent  in  degree.  A 
disease-germ,  getting  into  the  body,  produces  complex 
derangements  great  and  small  throughout  numerous 
organs;  and,  if  recovery  takes  place,  sequence  are  often 
such  as  affect  disastrously  the  remainder  of  life.  Sim- 
ilarly in  a  society,  such  a  simple  occurrence  as  the 
discovery  of  gold  brings  multitudinous  results — an 
inrush  of  people,  growths  of  towns,  new  social  ar- 
rangements, gambling  hells,  demoralization,  besides 
much  wider  effects — new  businesses,  new  lines  of  traf- 
fic, and  the  changes  presently  caused  throughout  the 
world  in  the  relative  values  of  gold  and  goods. 

The  particular  instance  of  this  fructifying  causa- 

135 


136  PARTY-GOVERNMENT. 

tion  which  I  have  now  in  view,  dates  back  to  a  year 
or  two  before  the  last  General  Election.  Whether 
Sir  William  Harcourt  is  a  total  abstainer,  or  whether 
he  was  prompted  by  the  miserable  delusion  that  a 
majority  has  unlimited  right  to  control  the  acts  of 
individuals,  or  whether  he  thought  that  the  support 
of  the  teetotalers  at  the  forthcoming  election  would 
bring  success,  must  remain  undecided;  but,  for  what- 
ever reason,  "  local  option  "  was  made  a  "  plank,"  as 
the  Americans  say,  in  the  Liberal  platform.  Con- 
sidered from  a  tactical  point  of  view  the  step  was  an 
amazing  one.  During  a  year  or  more  before  the 
election,  I  often  commented  on  the  impolicy  of  rais- 
ing in  every  beer-house  throughout  the  kingdom,  a 
pronounced  antagonism.  Not  even  in  towns,  and 
still  less  in  villages,  did  the  mass  of  the  electors  care 
a  straw  about  Home  Rule,  which  was  to  be  the  osten- 
sible chief  issue;  but  they  cared  greatly  about  the 
threatened  interference  with  the  sale  of  beer.  Every 
urban  publican  had  an  interest  in  denouncing  the  pro- 
posed measure,  and  every  rural  publican,  sympathiz- 
ing with  him,  and  fearing  an  extension  of  the  inter- 
ference, joined  in  the  denunciations;  while  the  fre- 
quenters of  their  houses,  threatened  not  only  with 
loss  of  their  beer  but  with  loss  of  their  places  of 
resort,  were  willing  listeners  and  joint  denouncers. 
The  result,  as  we  all  know,  was  an  overwhelming  de- 
feat of  the  party  in  power  and  a  thrusting  of  them 


PARTY-GOVERNMENT.  137 

aside  by  the  opposition.  Of  the  multitudinous  se- 
quences of  all  kinds  since  witnessed,  let  me  first  indi- 
cate the  most  conspicuous  set. 

An  ambitious  man  of  despotic  temper  who,  in  the 
Birmingham  municipal  government,  had  learned  the 
art  of  subordinating  others,  and  had  by  ability  and 
audacity  forced  himself  to  the  front  in  the  central 
government,  became  Colonial  Secretary.  That  his 
determination  to  have  his  own  way  was  the  cause  of 
the  still-progressing  war  in  South  Africa,  no  one  now 
doubts.  The  results  to  the  two  republics  have  been 
the  loss  of  many  thousands  of  lives,  the  breaking  up 
of  multitudinous  families,  the  destruction  of  countless 
homesteads,  the  desolation  of  the  country,  the  arrest 
of  industrial  activities  and  complete  social  disorgan- 
ization; while  to  ourselves  the  results  have  been  the 
deaths  of  some  25,000  soldiers  on  the  battlefield  and 
in  hospitals,  as  well  as  the  invaliding  of  60,000  others, 
many  of  whom  will  die  and  others  be  maimed,  the 
immense  increase  of  financial  burdens  by  taxes  and 
loans,  the  checking  of  commercial  activity,  the  kin- 
dling of  savage  feelings  causing  brutal  behaviour  of 
mobs,  the  rousing  of  hatred  of  us  among  Continental 
peoples  which  will  hereafter  affect  international  re- 
lations, and  the  utter  loss  of  that  character  for  love 
of  freedom  and  sympathy  with  those  who  strive  for  it 
which  we  before  had.  These  leading  effects  severally 
ramify  everywhere  into  unimaginable  complications, 
10 


138  PARTY-GOVERNMENT. 

infinite  in  number,  world-wide  in  reach,  and  hetero- 
geneous in  their  kinds  to  an  inconceivable  degree; 
and  all  of  them  were  initiated  by  a  small  and  utterly 
irrelevant  shibboleth.  For  had  there  been  no  thrust- 
ing of  "  local  option  "  in  the  faces  of  electors,  a  pos- 
sible defeat  of  the  Liberal  party,  even  had  it  occurred, 
would  not  have  given  the  antagonist  party  a  majority 
so  enormous  as  to  enable  its  leaders  to  do  whatever 
they  pleased.* 

But,  as  indicated  above,  numerous  other  sets  of 
important  effects  have  followed  the  seemingly  irrele- 
vant cause.  It  is  to  these  effects,  and  to  the  moral 
to  be  drawn  from  them,  that  I  would  more  especially 
draw  attention.  Those  in  power,  with  the  support 
of  their  overwhelming  majority,  have,  even  avow- 
edly, legislated  in  favour  of  their  own  class  and  of 
the  classes  useful  to  them.  By  the  Bating  Acts  of 
1896  they  relieved  English  and  Scotch  landowners  to 

*  In  addition  to  the  general  evidence  that  change  of  opinion 
on  the  question  of  Home  Rule  was  not  the  cause  of  the  violent 
party-reaction,  there  was  the  special  evidence  furnished  by  the 
case  of  Sir  William  Ilarcourt  himself.  On  the  occasion  of  the 
previous  election  he  had  been  popular  with  the  electors  of  Derby, 
but  at  the  election  of  1895  he  was  hurled  from  his  seat  and  a 
Conservative  put  in  his  place  (a  rare  thing  for  Derby,  which  has 
almost  invariably  elected  Liberals),  and  then  at  the  recent  elec- 
tion (1900),  when  the  question  of  local  option  had  been  practi- 
cally shelved,  this  Conservative  was  rejected  and  replaced  by  a 
Liberal.  The  animus  against  Sir  William  Ilarcourt  as  the  ex- 
ponent of  the  teetotal  crusade,  could  hardly  have  been  more 
clearly  shown, 


PARTY-GOVERNMENT.  139 

the  extent  of  a  million  and  a  half;  imposing  that  bur- 
den on  other  rate-payers.  In  1897  a  "  dole "  of 
£800,000  a  year  was  given  to  the  "  denominational  " 
schools,  advantaging  them  in  their  competition  with 
Board  Schools  and  increasing  the  power  of  the 
Church.  In  the  shape  of  relief  from  agricultural 
rates,  Ireland,  and  in  considerable  part  the  Irish  land- 
owners, were  benefited  to  the  extent  of  £727,000  a 
year,  and  equivalent  extra  burdens  were  undertaken 
by  the  State,  that  is,  imposed  on  British  taxpayers. 
Once  more  in  1899,  by  the  Clerical  Tithes  Act,  ten 
or  eleven  thousand  incumbents  were  relieved  from 
half  of  the  rates  they  had  to  pay  on  their  tithe-rent 
charge,  and  the  community  at  large  became  responsi- 
ble for  that  amount.  So  that,  passing  over  smaller 
encroachments,  those  in  office  benefited  their  friends 
to  the  amount  of  over  £3,000,000,  indirectly  taken 
from  the  pockets  of  the  nation  at  large.  Power  given 
in  support  of  a  particular  policy  was  used  by  the  min- 
istry to  carry  out  other  policies  which  would  never 
have  been  approved  by  the  electors  had  they  been 
consulted. 

"  Well,  but  what  are  we  to  do?  "  will  be  the  ques- 
tion asked.  "  All  these  evils  are  the  results  of  our 
system  of  government,  and  we  must  make  the  best  of 
them.  We  cannot  avoid  having  parties.  An  obedi- 
ent majority  will  necessarily  enable  its  leaders  to  do 


140  PARTY-GOVERNMENT. 

things  at  variance  with  the  wishes  of  those  who  put  it 
in  power.  Only  by  the  abolition  of  party-govern- 
ment, which  no  one  thinks  possible,  can  this  mischie- 
vous working  out  of  things  be  changed." 

I  demur  to  this  conclusion.  Were  every  member 
of  Parliament  true  to  his  convictions — did  every  one 
resolve  that  he  would  not  tell  falsehoods  by  his  votes 
— did  each  cease  to  regard  "  party  loyalty  "  as  a  vir- 
tue, and  decide  to  give  effect  to  his  unit  of  opinion, 
regardless  of  ministerial  interests — these  over-ridings 
of  the  national  will  by  a  few  gentlemen  in  Downing 
Street  would  be  impossible. 

"  But  such  a  course  would  bring  government  to 
a  deadlock,"  will  be  rejoined.  "  ^o  ministry  could 
continue  in  office  for  a  month  if  it  could  not  count 
upon  a  body  of  supporters  who  would  vote  for  its 
measures  whether  they  approved  of  them  or  not. 
Ministry  after  ministry  would  be  thrown  out  and  pub- 
lic business  arrested." 

Here  is  one  of  those  not  infrequent  cases  in  which 
men  discussing  some  proposed  change,  assume  that 
while  the  change  is  made  other  things  remain  un- 
changed; whereas  it  is  always  to  be  assumed  that 
other  things  will  change  simultaneously.  If  repre- 
sentatives, or  a  large  proportion  of  them,  decided 
that  they  would  no  longer  by  their  votes  say  they  be- 
lieved things  were  good  which  they  really  believed 
were  bad;  and  if,  while  receiving  adequate  support 


PARTY-GOVERNMENT.  141 

on  certain  main  issues,  the  ministry  was  frequently 
left  in  a  minority  on  minor  issues,  and,  in  conformity 
with  the  present  practice,  resigned;  and  if  the  like 
happened  with  subsequent  ministries;  it  would  pres- 
ently be  recognized  as  unfit  that  a  government  ap- 
proved in  its  general  conduct  of  affairs  should  resign 
because  it  was  defeated — even  often  defeated — on 
subordinate  questions :  especially  if  those  who  usually 
supported  it,  but  who  were  about  to  vote  against  it, 
announced  that  their  dissent  must  not  be  taken  as 
indicating  any  general  dissatisfaction.  Only  in  cases 
where  the  defeats  of  the  ministry  were  frequent 
enough  to  show  that  its  policy  at  large  was  con- 
demned, would  resignation  be  the  sequence,  and  the 
appropriate  sequence.  In  all  ordinary  cases  ministers 
would  simply  accept  the  expression  of  dissent,  and 
instead  of  resigning  withdraw  the  offending  measure. 
And  now  observe  what  would  be  the  general  re- 
sults. No  longer  able  to  pass  measures  disapproved 
by  the  opposition  and  by  many  of  its  own  followers, 
a  ministry  would  be  able  to  pass  only  such  measures 
as  were  approved  by  a  majority  of  representatives  of 
all  parties — or  rather,  let  us  say,  fragments  of  par- 
ties; and,  by  implication,  would  be  able  to  pass  only 
such  measures  as  would  probably  be  approved  by  most 
of  the  constituencies.  A  ministry  which  came  into 
power  to  achieve  one  purpose  willed  by  the  country, 
would  not  be  able  subsequently  to  use  its  power  to 


142  PARTY-GOVERNIuENT. 

achieve  purposes  not  willed  by  the  country  but  at 
variance  with  its  will.  That  is  to  say,  a  ministry 
would  become  that  which  its  name  implies,  a  servant, 
instead  of  being  what  it  is  now,  a  master — a  servant 
not,  as  originally,  of  the  monarch,  but  a  servant  of 
the  house  and  the  nation. 

At  present  that  which  we  boast  of  as  political 
freedom  consists  in  the  ability  to  choose  a  despot  or  a 
group  of  oligarchs,  and  after  long  misbehaviour  has 
produced  dissatisfaction,  to  choose  another  despot  or 
group  of  oligarchs :  having  meanwhile  been  made  sub- 
ject to  laws  sundry  of  which  are  repugnant.  Abolish 
the  existing  conventional  usage — let  each  member 
feel  that  he  may  express  by  his  vote  his  adverse  be- 
lief respecting  a  government  measure,  without  en- 
dangering the  government's  stability,  and  the  whole 
of  this  vicious  system  would  disappear.  Constituen- 
cies through  their  representatives  would  really  come 
to  be  the  makers  of  the  laws  they  live  under. 

But  what  if  each  constituency  has  bound  its  rep- 
resentative to  follow  a  party-leader?  Yes,  here  comes 
the  crux.  Political  vices  have  their  roots  in  the  na- 
ture of  the  people.  The  ability  to  find  candidates 
who  will  bind  themselves  to  party-programmes,  and 
the  wish  to  find  such  candidates,  are  alike  indicative 
of  an  average  character  not  fitted  for  truly  free  insti- 
tutions, but  fitted  only  for  those  institutions  under 
which  despotism  is  from  time  to  time  mitigated  by 


PARTY-GOVERNMENT.  143 

freedom.  Freedom  in  its  full  sense — the  power  to 
carry  on  the  activities  of  life  with  no  greater  restric- 
tions than  those  entailed  by  the  claims  of  others  to 
like  power — is  understood  by  very  few.  Illustrations 
of  the  current  inability  meet  us  on  all  sides.  Men 
who  take  shares  in  a  company  formed  for  a  specified 
purpose  and  then  think  themselves  bound  by  the  vote 
of  a  two-thirds  majority  to  undertake  some  other  pur- 
pose, do  not  perceive  that  they  are  aggressed  upon — 
do  not  see  that  those  who  have  entered  into  a  contract 
are  not  bound  to  do  a  thing  which  they  have  not  con- 
tracted to  do,  and  that  therefore  they  are  wronged. 
Ratepayers  who  elect  members  of  a  municipal  gov- 
ernment for  the  local  maintenance  of  order,  and  for 
certain  public  administrations,  and  then  submit  to  be 
taxed  for  purposes  they  never  dreamt  of  (as  subscrib- 
ing capital  for  a  canal)  if  a  majority  of  the  elected 
body  so  decide,  fail  to  understand  the  nature  of  lib- 
erty. Similarly  those  who,  joining  a  trade-union, 
surrender  their  freedom  to  make  engagements  on 
their  own  terms,  and  allow  themselves  to  be  told  by 
their  leaders  when  to  work  and  when  not  to  work, 
have  no  adequate  sense  of  that  fundamental  right 
which  every  man  possesses  to  make  the  best  of  him- 
self, and  to  dispose  of  his  abilities  in  any  way  he 
pleases.  Naturally,  then,  it  results  that  those  who 
represent  electors  who  are  thus  vague  in  their  con- 
ceptions of  freedom,  and  deficient  in  the  accompany- 


144:  PARTY-GOVERNMENT. 

ing  sentiment,  must  be  expected  to  submit  to  party- 
dictates,  and  to  say  by  their  votes  that  they  approve 
things  which  they  do  not  approve.  For  the  present 
there  is  no  probability  of  anything  better,  but  a  prob- 
ability of  something  worse;  for  the  retrograde  move- 
ment now  going  on  towards  the  militant  social  type, 
is  inevitably  accompanied  not  by  relaxation  of  au- 
thority but  by  enforcement  of  it. 


EXAGGEKATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS. 

I  have  read  or  heard  that  James  Mill  punished 
his  daughters  for  bad  reasoning.  What  penalties  were 
inflicted  I  did  not  learn;  but  so  drastic  a  method  of 
dealing  with  defects  of  thought,  which  are  in  many 
cases  due  to  incurable  defects  of  nature,  does  not 
commend  itself  to  me. 

I  should,  however,  be  inclined  to  inflict  on  young 
people  certain  punishments  for  exaggerations  and 
mis-statements — punishments  having  relevance  to  the 
offences  and  naturally  serving  to  check  them.  In 
each  instance  a  fit  task  would  be  to  write  out  a  cor- 
rect definition  of  the  misused  word,  followed  by  some 
examples  of  its  appropriate  use.  The  penalty  would 
be  slight  and  in  all  respects  improving;  since,  besides 
impressing  on  the  offender  the  meaning  of  the  word, 
it  would  constitute  an  exercise  in  definition:  there 
would  be  frequent  discipline  in  exact  thinking.  Such 
discipline  is  ignored  in  the  current  conceptions  of  edu- 
cation, though  immensely  more  important  than  much 
other  discipline  that  is  insisted  on.  Of  course  parallel 
kinds  of  penalties  might  be  inflicted  for  mis-state- 

145 


146     EXAGGERATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS. 

ments — not  mis-statements  of  things  learned  from 
books,  but  mis-statements  of  the  incidents  of  daily 
life,  private  and  public,  which  are  conspicuous  in  the 
conversation  of  both  young  and  old  from  hour  to 
hour. 

All  are  transgressors,  and  consequently  all  take 
lenient  views  of  the  transgression.  Passing  feelings 
prompt  stronger  words  than  are  justifiable,  and  the 
desire  to  interest  listeners  increases  perversions  other- 
wise  caused.  I  find  that  I  am  myself  to  be  blamed 
for  thus  corrupting  expression :  discovering,  as  I  often 
do  when  revising  manuscript,  that  the  word  "  very  " 
had  been  used  where  it  was  uncalled  for.  From  min- 
ute to  minute  every  one  utters  needless  adjectives  and 
adverbs.  We  rarely  hear  anyone  say  he  has  a  cold: 
it  is  nearly  always  a  "  bad  "  cold,  or  a  "  very  bad  " 
cold.  If  it  be  a  question  of  weather,  then  a  warm 
day  in  Spring  is  spoken  of  as  "  hot  " :  a  description 
inapplicable  save  to  days  in  July  or  August.  Sup- 
posing it  should  rain  moderately,  it  is  said  to  be 
"  pouring  " — a  word  rightly  used  only  in  case  of  a 
thunder-shower  or  shower  like  it.  Similarly,  a  little 
thin  ice  over  the  puddles  is  thought  to  justify  the  de- 
scription "  a  hard  frost."  And  if  the  question  con- 
cerns the  merit  or  demerit  of  a  person  or  perform- 
ance, he  or  it  is  represented  as  much  above  or  much 
below  the  average.  Conversation  is  thickly  sprinkled 
with  superlatives,  and  yet  it  needs  but  a  moment's 


EXAGGERATIONS  AND   MIS-STATEMENTS.      147 

thought  to  see  that  superlatives  should  occur  but 
rarely,  since  extreme  cases  bear  but  a  small  ratio 
to  medium  cases. 

Criticisms  passed  on  these  licenses  of  speech  are 
pooh-poohed  or  disregarded.  It  is  forgotten  that 
they  are  manifestations  of  a  habit,  and  that  while 
mostly  little  or  no  harm  results,  the  habit  occasion- 
ally results  in  harm  that  is  serious.  To  say  that  ex- 
aggerations are  of  no  consequence  is  to  say  that  it 
matters  not  whether  language  conveys  truth  or  error: 
partial  and  trivial  error  in  most  cases,  but  grave  error 
in  some  cases.  My  attention  has  recently  been  drawn 
to  the  consequent  evils  by  personal  experiences,  which 
show  that  words  carelessly  used,  even  in  private  let- 
ters, may,  through  a  publication  never  dreamt  of 
when  they  were  written,  cause  mischiefs. 

The  first  of  the  experiences  to  which  I  refer  is  sup- 
plied by  The  Life  and  Letters  of  T.  H.  Huxley.  On 
page  333  of  Vol.  I,  in  a  letter  to  his  German  friend 
Dr.  Dohrn,  jocosely  threatening  to  pull  to  pieces  some 
of  his  new  ideas  if  he  sends  them,  he,  in  illustration 
of  his  threat,  refers  to  me  in  the  following  words — 
"  I  have  been  his  devil's  advocate  for  a  number  of 
years,  and  there  is  no  telling  how  many  brilliant 
speculations  I  have  been  the  means  of  choking  in  an 
embryonic  state."  Interpreted  with  the  aid  of  the 
context,  this  sentence  will,  by  the  critically-minded, 
not  be  taken  seriously;  but  those  who  are  not  crit- 


148     EXAGGERATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS. 

ically-minded,  will  give  a  literal  meaning  to  the  ex- 
pression "  no  telling  how  many  brilliant  speculations, 
&c."  Feeling  that,  in  the  absence  of  correction,  this 
phrase  would  mislead,  I  requested  my  secretary  (who 
now  writes  to  my  dictation)  to  compare  the  original 
MSS.  with  the  printed  books.  He  found  that  in  the 
two  works,  First  Principles  and  The  Principles  of 
Biology,  occupying  three  volumes,  which  were  seen 
in  proof  by  Prof.  Huxley,  there  were  four  speculative 
passages  in  the  MSS.  which  had  disappeared  from  the 
printed  text:  one  of  them,  however,  having  been 
afterwards  reproduced  by  me  in  an  appendix,  because 
good  warrant  for  it  had  become  known.  A  further 
misapprehension  results.  It  was  necessary  that  on  my 
biological  writings  I  should  have  the  criticisms  of  an 
expert,  and  these  were  kindly  given  to  me  by  Prof. 
Huxley ;  but  I  did  not  ask  his  criticisms  on  my  psycho- 
logical, sociological,  and  ethical  writings,  nor  on  my 
writings  of  a  miscellaneous  kind.  Nevertheless  cer- 
tain other  passages  in  Mr.  Leonard  Huxley's  Life  of 
his  father  leave  on  most  readers,  if  not  on  all,  the  im- 
pression that  I  received  these.  There  is,  on  page  68 
of  Vol.  II,  a  statement  that  he  had  been  my  "  '  devil's 
advocate  '  for  thirty-odd  years  "  * — the  whole  period 


*  It  is  probable  that  Mr.  Leonard  ITuxley,  who  published  in 
the  Athenaum  for  Dec.  8,  1900,  a  letter  making  certain  rectifica- 
tions I  pointed  ont  as  needful,  has  omitted  from  later  editions 
the  passage  containing  these  words. 


EXAGGERATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS.      149 

of  our  friendship  up  to  the  date  of  the  letter;  and 
this,  joined  with  mentions  of  proof-reading  elsewhere, 
appears  to  imply  that  he  read  the  proofs  of  the  vari- 
ous works  written  during  that  time,  and  that  in  the 
absence  of  his  restraining  influence  I  should  have  pub- 
lished in  them  numerous  ill-based  speculations.  This 
injurious  implication,  resulting  from  careless  expres- 
sions, I  cannot  pass  unrectified.  Out  of  sixteen  pub- 
lished volumes  he  saw  the  proofs  of  three  only,  to 
which  must  be  added  the  proofs  of  some  small  frag- 
ments. That  he  was  very  apt  in  his  letters  to  make 
statements  of  too  sweeping  a  kind,  the  reader  may 
himself  find  clear  proof.  On  page  268  of  Yol.  II 
(first  edition),  speaking  of  use-inheritance,  he  writes 
— "  Spencer  is  bound  to  it  a  'priori — his  psychology 
goes  to  pieces  without  it."  Now  anyone  who  turns 
to  the  first  volume  of  The  Principles  of  Psychology, 
and  reads  Parts  I,  II,  and  III,  and  then  turns  to  the 
second  volume  and  reads  Parts  YI  and  YII  may  see 
that  his  statement  is  quite  misleading.  It  implies  that 
were  use-inheritance  disproved  the  whole  system 
would  fall  to  the  ground,  whereas  it  is  only  in  Parts 
IY  and  Y  that  use-inheritance  is  implied;  and  some 
contend  that  even  the  changes  described  in  these 
might  be  effected  by  natural  selection.  This  prone- 
ness  to  over-statement  was  not  limited  to  letters. 
Published  writings  exemplify  it.  The  views  which  I 
hold  respecting  the  limitation  of  State-functions  he 


150      EXAGGERATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS. 

called  "administrative  nihilism";  though,  beyond 
national  defence,  I  hold  it  to  be  the  business  of  the 
State  to  defend  citizens  not  only  from  crimes  of  vio- 
lence and  aggression  against  one  another  but  also 
from  all  civil  injuries  down  to  commission  of  nui- 
sances (see  Essays,  Vol.  II,  p.  442). 

The  other  instance  to  which  I  refer,  while  it  in 
some  measure  illustrates  the  mischief  done  by  exag- 
geration, also  illustrates  the  mischief  that  may  arise 
from  indefiniteness.  In  a  sketch  of  my  career  and 
works  published  by  a  warmly  sympathetic  narrator, 
there  occurs  this  sentence : — "  Like  Aristotle,  he  has 
had  to  delegate  large  portions  of  his  work  to  be  done 
for  him  by  others."  Those  who  know  that  the  work 
delegated  by  Aristotle  was  the  collection  of  materials 
for  his  Natural  History,  will  rightly  interpret  the 
reference.  But  not  one  reader  in  ten  knows  this,  and 
hence  wrong  inferences  will  probably  be  drawn.  As 
my  name  is  especially  associated  with  The  Synthetic 
Philosophy,  this  sentence  will  suggest  to  many  the 
thought  that  "  large  portions  "  of  it  were  written  by 
deputy.  This  he  did  not  mean  to  say.  The  work  to 
which  he  referred  is  entitled — "  Descriptive  Sociol- 
ogy; or  Groups  of  Sociological  Facts,  classified  and 
arranged  by  Herbert  Spencer,  compiled  and  ab- 
stracted by  David  Duncan,  Richard  Scheppig,  and 
James  Collier  " :  eight  parts  of  which  have  thus  far 
appeared.    Knowing  that  I  should  be  unable  to  read 


EXAGGERATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS.      151 

all  the  works  of  travel  and  history  containing  the 
facts  I  should  need  when  dealing  with  the  science  of 
society,  I  engaged  these  gentlemen — first  one,  then 
two,  then  three — to  read  up  for  me,  and  arrange  the 
extracts  they  made  in  the  manner  prescribed.  With 
much  material  I  had  accumulated  in  the  course  of 
many  years,  I  incorporated  a  much  larger  amount  of 
material  derived  from  these  compilations  when  writ- 
ing the  Principles  of  Sociology,  and  Part  II  of  the 
Principles  of  Ethics. 

If  even  the  sympathetic  are  apt  to  do  mischief  by 
misused  words,  what  is  to  be  expected  from  the  an- 
tagonistic ?  ^Nobody  needs  telling  that  the  effect  of 
animosity  of  every  kind,  personal,  political,  theolog- 
ical, or  philosophical,  is  greatly  to  intensify  exaggera- 
tions and  multiply  mis-statements.  I  have  had  much 
experience  in  controversy,  and  speaking  with  strict 
regard  to  facts  so  far  as  I  can  recall  them — avoiding 
carefully  that  exaggeration  I  am  condemning — my 
impression  is  that  in  three  cases  out  of  four  the  al- 
leged opinions  of  mine  condemned  by  opponents,  are 
not  opinions  of  mine  at  all,  but  are  opinions  wrongly 
ascribed  by  them  to  me;  sometimes  from  carelessness 
but  more  frequently  from  perversity:  seeming,  not 
unfrequently,  to  deliberate. 

In  illustration  of  the  extent  to  which  opposition, 
whether  expressed  in  controversy  or  otherwise  ex- 
pressed, prompts  injurious  misrepresentations,  I  may 


152     EXAGGERATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS. 

quote  a  passage  from  the  Letters  of  Benjamin  Jowett, 

page  190: — 

"I  sometimes  think  that  we  Platonists  and  Idealists  are 
not  half  so  industrious  as  those  repulsive  people  who  only  '  be- 
lieve what  they  can  hold  in  their  hands,'  Bain,  H.  Spencer,  etc., 
who  are  the  very  Tuppers  of  Philosophy. " 

I  will  not  ask  in  what  sense  the  Law  of  Evolution  and 
sundry  generalizations  of  an  abstract  kind  with  which 
I  am  identified,  can  be  severally  held  in  my  hands, 
but  will  interpret  this  statement  in  the  sense  prob- 
ably intended,  as  an  ascription  of  materialism.  One 
might  have  expected  that  Prof.  Jowett,  learned  in 
philosophy  and  practised  in  making  distinctions, 
would  not  have  followed  in  the  steps  of  less  cultured 
theological  opponents,  whose  aspersions  I  have  time 
after  time  shown  to  be  groundless.  It  might  have 
been  supposed  that  since  the  System  of  Synthetic 
Philosophy  commences  with  a  division  entitled  "  The 
Unknowable,"  having  for  its  purpose  to  show  that  all 
material  phenomena  are  manifestations  of  a  Power 
which  transcends  our  knowledge — that  "  force,  as  we 
know  it,  can  be  regarded  only  as  a  conditioned  effect 
of  the  Unconditioned  Cause  "  (§  51),  there  had  been 
afforded  sufficiently  decided  proof  of  belief  in  some- 
thing which  cannot  be  held  in  the  hands.  Consider- 
ing that  in  The  Principles  of  Psychology,  §  63, 1  have 
written — "Hence  though  of  the  two  it  seems  easier 
to  translate  so-called  Matter  into  so-called  Spirit,  than 
to    translate   so-called   Spirit   into   so-called   Matter 


EXAGGERATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS.      153 

(which  latter  is,  indeed,  wholly  impossible),  yet  no 
translation  can  carry  us  beyond  our  symbols/'  I  might 
reasonably  have  thought  that  no  one  would  call  me 
a  materialist.  Still  more  after  the  elaborate  analysis 
contained  in  §§  271,  272,  showing  the  untenability 
of  materialism,  I  should  have  supposed  the  repudia- 
tion complete.  But  the  charge  of  materialism  is  a 
convenient  weapon  for  theological  and  philosophical 
opponents — a  weapon  which,  knocked  out  of  the 
hand  of  one,  is  presently  picked  up  by  another — a 
weapon  which  Prof.  Jowett  was  not  ashamed  to  use 
and  to  join  with  vilifying  words.* 

*  "  But  perhaps  he  did  not  know  of  these  passages,"  some 
defender  will  say.  I  am  not  aware  that  one  who  condemns  an 
author's  opinions  is  excused  because  he  does  not  know  what  those 
opinions  are :  rather  his  ignorance  adds  to  the  gravity  of  his  of- 
fence. But  the  excuse,  bad  though  it  is,  is  unavailing,  for  Prof. 
Jowett  had  in  his  hands  the  works  containing  these  passages. 
More  than  the  first  half  of  The  Synthetic  Philosophy  was  origi- 
nally issued  in  portions  of  80  pages  to  subscribers,  who  paid  ten 
shillings  for  every  four  numbers.  Prof.  Jowett  was  among  the 
original  subscribers.  When  the  series  had  been  running  for 
seven  years,  Prof.  Jowett,  annoyed,  I  suppose,  at  the  trouble  of 
having  to  pay  ten  shillings  at  intervals,  sent  to  my  publishers  a 
lump  sum  of  £5  to  cover  future  subscriptions.  On  completion 
of  the  44th  number  I  decided  to  publish  the  remaining  volumes 
in  the  ordinary  way.  At  that  time  the  £5  sent  by  Prof.  Jowett 
was  unexhausted,  and  the  balance  was  sent  back  to  him.  Thus, 
beyond  the  fact  that  he  was  a  subscriber  from  the  beginning, 
there  is  the  more  remarkable  fact  that  out  of  about  four  hundred 
original  subscribers,  he  was  the  only  one  who  paid  subscriptions 
in  advance — paid,  in  fact,  ten  subscriptions  in  advance. 

In  presence  of  the  quotation  which  I  have  above  given,  these, 
statements  will  be  thought  incredible:  at  any  rate  verification 
11 


154     EXAGGERATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS. 

Returning  from  these  illustrations  to  the  topic  at 
large,  let  me  insist  more  than  thus  far,  on  the  enor- 
mous mischiefs  which  careless  speech  produces. 
Bloodshed,  loss  of  life,  national  disaster,  are  in  consid- 
erable measure  traceable  to  it.  Passions,  alike  of  in- 
dividuals and  of  peoples,  once  aroused  are  intensified 
by  vilifications,  often  unwarranted  from  the  outset 
and  beyond  question  unwarranted  as  the  passions  rise 
to  their  climax,  and  men,  blinded  by  fury,  utter  any 
calumnies  which  come  first  into  thought.     Of  course 

will  be  asked.  I  therefore  wrote  to  my  publishers,  thinking  that 
though  the  subscription-book  ceased  to  be  used  22  years  ago,  there 
might  yet  be  found,  if  not  in  it  yet  in  some  other  book  of  ac- 
counts, a  verifying  entry.  This  turned  out  to  be  true,  as  is 
shown  by  the  following  letter: — 

14  Henrietta  St.,  Covent  Garden, 
21  August,  1899. 
Dear  Sir, — 

In  answer  to  your  letter  of  the  20th  inst.  it  appears  from 
the  only  book  to  which  we  can  refer  that  Prof.  Jowett  paid  to  us 
the  sum  of  £5  on  12  March,  1867,  on  account  of  Synthetic  Phi- 
losophy, and  that  eventually  the  sum  of  £1  was  returned  to  him. 
We  regret  that  we  cannot  trace  the  date  of  this  repayment,  as  we 
have  not  the  cash-books  or  letters  of  that  date. 

We  are,  &c, 

Williams  &  Norgate. 

Here,  then,  is  a  psychological  puzzle.  Prof.  Jowett's  prac- 
tical proof  of  approbation  was  inversely  proportionate  to  his  ox- 
pressed  disapprobation!  While  showing,  in  an  extremely  ex- 
ceptional way,  if  not  his  agreement  with  the  Synthetic  Philosophy 
yet  his  appreciation  of  it,  he  described  its  author  as  an  "empty 
sciolist  "  [words  used  in  another  passage].  Prof.  Jowett  was  said 
to  be  difficult  to  understand.  Here  is  a  problem  for  his  admirers 
which  they  will,  I  think,  not  easily  solve. 


EXAGGERATIONS  AXD  MIS-STATEMENTS.      155 

the  great  mass  of  the  English  people  will  refuse  to 
see  that  our  reckless  exaggerations  and  reckless  mis- 
statements, have  been  in  large  measure  to  blame  for 
the  evils  we  are  ourselves  now  suffering  while  inflict- 
ing greater  evils  on  others;  but  they  will  not  refuse 
to  see  that  exaggerations  and  mis-statements  have 
immensely  increased  the  hatred  now  felt  for  England 
by  Continental  nations.  They  must  surely  perceive 
that  this  universal  misuse  of  language  is  at  the  present 
moment  a  source  of  international  danger;  since,  while 
the  French  and  the  Germans  are  anxious  to  find  ex- 
cuses for  fighting  us,  small  incidents  may  precipitate 
disastrous  wars.  Obviously  the  animosity  lately  gen- 
erated, which,  as  I  hear  from  a  German  friend  espe- 
cially characterizes  the  young,  may  hereafter  be  a 
cause  of  wholesale  slaughter,  resurgence  of  savagery, 
and  vast  financial  burdens.  Hence  it  is  a  duty  to  rep- 
robate habits  of  exaggeration.  I  say  habits,  because 
if  words  are  misused  in  small  and  indifferent  matters 
they  will  be  misused  in  great  and  important  ones.  It 
is  folly  to  suppose  that  those  who,  when  trivialities 
are  in  question,  use  stronger  words  than  are  called 
for,  will  suddenly  become  judicial  in  their  speech 
when  the  things  discussed  are  momentous. 

"  So  then  we  are  to  make  our  talk  prim  and  ex- 
act and  consequently  dull:  looking  at  our  words  be- 
fore we  utter  them  to  see  that  they  do  not  go  beyond 
the  truth?    Why,  were  that  done,  conversation  would 


156     EXAGGERATIONS  AND  MIS-STATEMENTS. 

lose  all  its  salt !  "  Such  is  the  kind  of  response  to  be 
expected  from  those  who  exaggerate  and  who  defend 
exaggeration.  The  response  comes  appropriately, 
since  it  illustrates  that  randomness  of  thought  which 
exaggeration  itself  does.  The  implication  of  the 
above  argument  is  that  words  which  truly  express  the 
facts  should  be  used  in  all  cases  where  the  obvious 
intention  is  to  express  facts;  not  at  all  that  words 
should  be  used  in  this  way  when  there  is  an  obvious 
intention  to  overstate  with  a  view  to  cause  amuse- 
ment. Humorous  exaggeration  would  be  increased 
in  effect  when  it  came  from  the  mouth  of  one  who 
ordinarily  used  words  appropriately. 


IMPERIALISM  AND   SLAVERY. 

"  You  shall  submit.  We  are  masters  and  we  will 
make  you  acknowledge  it!  "  These  words  express 
the  sentiment  which  sways  the  British  nation  in  its 
dealings  with  the  Boer  republics;  and  this  sentiment 
it  is  which,  definitely  displayed  in  this  case,  pervades 
indefinitely  the  political  feeling  now  manifesting  it- 
self as  Imperialism.  Supremacy,  where  not  clearly 
imagined,  is  vaguely  present  in  the  background  of 
consciousness.  Not  the  derivation  of  the  word  only, 
but  all  its  uses  and  associations,  imply  the  thought 
of  predominance — imply  a  correlative  subordination. 
Actual  or  potential  coercion  of  others,  individuals  or 
communities,  is  necessarily  involved  in  the  concep- 
tion. 

There  are  those,  and  unhappily  they  form  the 
great  majority,  who  think  there  is  something  noble 
(morally  as  well  as  historically)  in  the  exercise  of 
command — in  the  forcing  of  others  to  abandon  their 
own  wills  and  fulfil  the  will  of  the  commander.  I 
am  not  about  to  contest  this  sentiment.  I  merely 
say  that  there  are  others,  unhappily  but  few,  who 

157 


158  IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY. 

think  it  ignoble  to  bring  their  fellow  creatures  into 
subjection,  and  who  think  the  noble  thing  is  not  only 
to  respect  their  freedom  but  also  to  defend  it.  Leav- 
ing this  matter  undiscussed,  my  present  purpose  is  to 
show  those  who  lean  towards  Imperialism,  that  the 
exercise  of  mastery  inevitably  entails  on  the  master 
himself  some  form  of  slavery,  more  or  less  pro- 
nounced. The  uncultured  masses,  and  even  the 
greater  part  of  the  cultured,  will  regard  this  state- 
ment as  absurd;  and  though  many  who  have  read 
history  with  an  eye  to  essentials  rather  than  trivial- 
ities know  that  this  is  a  paradox  in  the  right  sense — 
that  is,  true  in  fact  though  not  seeming  true — even 
they  are  not  fully  conscious  of  the  mass  of  evidence 
establishing  it,  and  will  be  all  the  better  for  having 
illustrations  recalled.  Let  me  begin  with  the  earliest 
and  simplest,  which  well  serves  to  symbolize  the 
whole. 

Here  is  a  prisoner  with  hands  tied  and  a  cord 
round  his  neck  (as  suggested  by  figures  in  Assyrian 
bas-reliefs)  being  led  home  by  his  savage  conqueror, 
who  intends  to  make  him  a  slave.  The  one,  you  say, 
is  captive  and  the  other  free?  Are  you  quite  sure 
the  other  is  free?  He  holds  one  end  of  the  cord,  and 
unless  he  means  to  let  his  captive  escape,  he  must  con- 
tinue to  be  fastened  by  keeping  hold  of  the  cord  in 
such  way  that  it  cannot  easily  be  detached.  He  must 
be  himself  tied  to  the  captive  while  the  captive  is 


IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY.  159 

tied  to  him.  In  other  ways  his  activities  are  impeded 
and  certain  burdens  are  imposed  on  him.  A  wild 
animal  crosses  the  track,  and  he  cannot  pursue.  If 
he  wishes  to  drink  of  the  adjacent  stream,  he  must 
tie  up  his  captive  lest  advantage  be  taken  of  his  de- 
fenceless position.  Moreover  he  has  to  provide  food 
for  both.  In  various  ways,  then,  he  is  no  longer  com- 
pletely at  liberty;  and  these  ways  adumbrate  in  a 
simple  manner  the  universal  truth  that  the  instru- 
mentalities by  which  the  subordination  of  others  is 
effected,  themselves  subordinate  the  victor,  the  mas- 
ter, or  the  ruler. 

The  coincidence  in  time  between  the  South  Afri- 
can war  and  the  recent  outburst  of  Imperialism,  illus- 
trates the  general  truth  that  militancy  and  Imperial- 
ism are  closely  allied — are,  in  fact,  different  mani- 
festations of  the  same  social  condition.  It  could  not, 
indeed,  be  otherwise.  Subject  races  or  subject  soci- 
eties, do  not  voluntarily  submit  themselves  to  a  ruling 
race  or  a  ruling  society:  their  subjection  is  nearly  al- 
ways the  effect  of  coercion.  An  army  is  the  agency 
which  achieved  it,  and  an  army  must  be  kept  ever 
ready  to  maintain  it.  Unless  the  supremacy  has 
actual  or  potential  force  behind  it  there  is  only  fed- 
eration, not  Imperialism.  Here,  however,  as  above 
implied,  the  purpose  is  not  so  much  to  show  that  an 
imperial  society  is  necessarily  a  militant  society,  as 
to  show  that  in  proportion  as  liberty  is  diminished 


160  IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY. 

in  the  societies  over  which  it  rules,  liberty  is  dimin- 
ished within  its  own  organization. 

The  earliest  records  furnish  an  illustration. 
"Whether  in  the  times  of  the  pyramid-builders  the 
power  of  the  Egyptian  autocrat,  which  effected  such 
astounding  results,  was  qualified  by  an  elaborate  sys- 
tem of  restraints,  we  have  no  evidence;  but  there  is 
proof  that  in  later  days  he  was  the  slave  of  the  gov- 
ernmental organization. 

"  The  laws  subjected  every  action  of  his  private  life  to  as 
severe  a  scrutiny  as  his  behaviour  in  the  administration  of  af- 
fairs. The  hours  of  washing,  walking,  and  all  the  amusements 
and  occupations  of  the  day,  were  settled  with  precision,  and 
the  quantity  as  well  as  the  quality  of  his  food  were  regulated 
by  law."  (Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians, 
Birch's  ed.  of  Wilkinson,  vol.  I,  166.) 

Moreover  the  relation  between  enslavement  of  for- 
eign peoples  and  enslavement  of  the  nation  which 
conquered  them,  is  shown  by  an  inscription  at  Kar- 
nak,  which  describes  "  how  bitterly  the  country  was 
paying  the  price  of  its  foreign  conquests,  in  its  op- 
pression by  its  standing  army."  (Flinders  Petrie, 
History  of  Egypt,  ii.  252.) 

Turn  we  now  to  a  society  of  widely  different  type 
but  exhibiting  the  same  general  truths — that  of 
Sparta.  The  conquering  race,  or  Spartans  proper, 
who  had  beneath  them  the  Perioeci  and  the  Helots, 
defendants  of  two  subject  races,  were  not  only  su- 
preme over  these  but  twice  became  the  supreme  race 


IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY.  1G1 

.of  the  Peleponnesus.  ^Vhat  was  the  price  they  paid 
for  their  "  imperial  "  position?  The  individual  Spar- 
tan, master  as  he  was  over  slaves  and  semi-slaves,  was 
himself  in  bondage  to  the  incorporated  society  of 
Spartans.  Each  led  the  life  not  which  he  himself 
chose  but  the  life  dictated  by  the  aggregate  of  which 
he  formed  one  unit.  And  this  life  was  a  life  of 
strenuous  discipline,  leaving  no  space  for  culture,  or 
art,  or  poetry,  or  other  source  of  pleasure.  He  ex- 
emplified in  an  extreme  degree  the  Grecian  doctrine 
that  the  citizen  does  not  belong  to  himself  or  to  his 
family  but  to  his  city. 

If  instead  of  the  small  and  simple  community  of 
Sparta  we  take  the  vast  and  complex  empire  of  Rome, 
we  find  this  essential  connexion  between  imperialism 
and  slavery  even  more  conspicuous.  I  do  not  refer 
to  the  fact  that  three-fourths  of  those  who  peopled 
Italy  in  imperial  days  were  slaves,  chained  in  the 
fields  when  at  work,  chained  at  night  in  their  dormi- 
tories, and  those  who  were  porters  chained  to  the 
doorways — conditions  horrible  to  contemplate — but 
I  refer  to  the  fact  that  the  nominally  free  part  of 
the  community  consisted  of  grades  of  bondmen.  ^N~ot 
only  did  citizens  stand  in  that  bondage  implied  by 
military  service,  complete  or  partial,  under  subjection 
so  rigid  that  an  officer  was  to  be  dreaded  more  than 
an  enemy,  but  those  occupied  in  civil  or  semi-civil 
life,  were  compelled  to  work  for  the  public.    "  Every- 


162  IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY. 

one  was  treated  in  fact  as  a  servant  of  the  State  .  .  . 
the  nature  of  each  man's  labour  was  permanently 
fixed  for  him."  The  society  was  formed  of  fighting 
serfs,  working  serfs,  cultivating  serfs,  official  serfs. 
And  then  what  of  the  supreme  head  of  this  gigantic 
bureaucracy  into  which  Roman  society  had  grown — 
the  Emperor?  He  became  a  puppet  of  the  Pretorian 
guard,  which  while  a  means  of  safety  was  a  cause  of 
danger.  Moreover  he  was  in  daily  bondage  to  rou- 
tine. As  Gibbon  says,  "  the  emperor  was  the  first 
slave  of  the  ceremonies  he  imposed."  Thus  in  a 
conspicuous  manner  Rome  shows  how,  as  in  other 
cases,  a  society  which  enslaves  other  societies  en- 
slaves itself. 

The  same  lesson  is  taught  by  those  ages  of  seeth- 
ing confusion — of  violence  and  bloodshed — which  the 
collapse  of  the  Roman  empire  left:  an  empire  which 
dwells  in  the  minds  of  the  many  as  something  to  be 
admired  and  emulated — the  many  who  forgive  any 
horrors  if  only  their  brute  love  of  mastery  is  gratified, 
sympathetically  when  not  actually.  Passing  over 
those  sanguinary  times  in  which  the  crimes  of  Clovis 
and  Fredegonde  and  Brunehaut  were  typical,  we 
come  in  the  slow  course  of  things  to  the  emergence 
of  the  feudal  regime — a  regime  briefly  expressed  by 
the  four  words,  suzerains,  vassals,  serfs,  slaves — a 
regime  which,  along  with  the  perpetual  struggles  for 
supremacy    among    local    rulers,    and    consequent 


IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY.  163 

chronic  militancy,  was  characterized  by  the  unquali- 
fied power  of  each  chief  or  ruler,  count  or  duke,  with- 
in his  own  territory — a  graduated  bondage  of  all  be- 
low him.  The  established  form — "  I  am  your  man/' 
uttered  by  the  vassal  on  his  knees  with  apposed  hands, 
expressed  the  relation  of  one  grade  to  another 
throughout  the  society;  and  then,  as  usual,  the  master 
of  slaves  was  himself  enslaved  by  his  appliances  for 
maintaining  life  and  power.  He  had  the  perpetual 
burden  of  arms  and  coat  of  mail,  and  the  precautions 
to  be  taken  now  against  assassination  now  against 
death  by  poison.  And  then  when  we  come  to  the  ulti- 
mate state  in  which  the  subordination  of  minor  rulers 
by  a  chief  ruler  had  become  complete,  and  all  counts 
and  dukes  were  vassals  of  the  king,  we  have  not  only 
the  bondage  entailed  on  the  king  by  State-business 
with  its  unceasing  anxieties,  but  the  bondage  of  cere- 
monial with  its  dreary  round.  Speaking  of  this  in 
France  in  the  time  of  Louis  le  Grand,  Madame  de 
Maintenon  remarks — "  Save  those  only  who  fill  the 
highest  stations,  I  know  of  none  more  unfortunate 
than  those  who  envy  them.  If  you  could  only  form 
an  idea  of  what  it  is!  " 

Merely  referring  to  the  extreme  subjection  of  the 
ruler  to  his  appliances  for  ruling  which  was  reached 
in  Japan,  where  the  god-descended  Mikado,  impris- 
oned by  the  requirements  of  his  sacred  state,  was 
debarred  from  ordinary  freedoms,  and  in  whose  re- 


1G4  IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY. 

cluse  life  there  were  at  one  time  such  penalties  as 
sitting  for  three  hours  daily  on  the  throne — passing 
over,  too,  the  case  of  China,  where,  as  Prof.  Douglas 
tells  us  of  the  emperor  "  his  whole  life  is  one  con- 
tinual round  of  ceremonial  observances,"  and  "  from 
the  day  on  which  he  ascends  the  throne  to  the  time 
when  he  is  carried  to  his  tomb  in  the  Eastern  Hills, 
his  hours  and  almost  minutes  have  special  duties  ap- 
pointed to  them  by  the  Board  of  Kites";  we  may 
turn  now  to  the  conspicuous  example  furnished  by 
Russia.  Along  with  that  unceasing  subjugation  of 
minor  nationalities  by  which  its  imperialism  is  dis- 
played, what  do  we  see  within  its  own  organization? 
We  have  its  vast  army,  to  service  in  which  every  one 
is  actually  or  potentially  liable;  we  have  an  enor- 
mous bureaucracy  ramifying  everywhere  and  rigidly 
controlling  individual  lives;  we  have  an  expenditure 
ever  outrunning  resources  and  calling  for  loans.  As 
a  result  of  the  pressure  felt  personally  and  pecunia- 
rily, we  have  secret  revolutionary  societies,  perpetual 
plots,  chronic  dread  of  social  explosions;  and  while 
everyone  is  in  danger  of  Siberia,  we  have  the  all- 
powerful  head  of  this  enslaved  nation  in  constant  fear 
for  his  life.  Even  when  he  goes  to  review  his  troops, 
rigorous  precautions  have  to  be  taken  by  a  supple- 
mentary army  of  soldiers,  policemen,  and  spies,  some 
forming  an  accompanying  guard,  some  lying  in  wait 
here  and  there  to  prevent  possible  attacks;  while  sim- 


IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY.  165 

ilar  precautions,  which  from  time  to  time  fail,  have 
ever  to  be  taken  against  assassination  by  explosion, 
during  drives  and  railway- journeys.  What  portion 
of  life  is  not  absorbed  in  government-business  and 
religious  observances  is  taken  up  in  self-preserva- 
tion. 

And  now  what  is  the  lesson?  Is  it  that  in  our 
own  case  imperialism  and  slavery,  everywhere  else 
and  at  all  times  united,  are  not  to  be  united?  Most 
will  say  Yes.  Nay  they  will  join,  as  our  Poet  Laure- 
ate lately  did  in  the  title  to  some  rhymes,  the  words 
"  Imperialism  and  Liberty  " ;  mistaking  names  for 
things  as  of  old.     Gibbon  writes : — 

"  Augustus  was  sensible  that  mankind  is  governed  by 
names;  nor  was  he  deceived  in  his  expectation,  that  the  senate 
and  people  would  submit  to  slavery,  provided  they  were  re- 
spectfully assured  that  they  still  enjoyed  their  ancient  freedom." 
(Decline  and  Fall,  i.  68.) 

"  Free !  "  thinks  the  Englishman,  "  How  can  I  be 
other  than  free  if  by  my  vote  I  share  in  electing 
a  representative  who  helps  to  determine  the  national 
transactions,  home  and  foreign?  "  Delivering  a  bal- 
lot-paper he  identifies  with  the  possession  of  those 
unrestrained  activities  which  liberty  implies;  though, 
to  take  but  one  instance,  a  threatened  penalty  every 
day  reminds  him  that  his  children  must  be  stamped 
with  the  State-pattern,  not  as  he  wills  but  as  others 
will. 

But  let  us  note  how,  along  with  the  nominal  ex- 


ICG  IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY. 

tension  of  constitutional  freedom,  there  has  been 
going  on  actual  diminution  of  it.  There  is  first  the 
fact  that  the  legislative  functions  of  Parliament  have 
been  decreasing  while  the  Ministry  has  been  usurp- 
ing them.  Important  measures  are  not  now  brought 
forward  and  carried  by  private  members,  but  appeal 
is  made  to  the  government  to  take  them  up:  the 
making  of  laws  is  gradually  lapsing  into  the  hands 
of  the  executive.  And  then  within  the  executive  it- 
self the  tendency  is  towards  placing  power  in  fewer 
hands.  Just  as  in  past  times  the  Cabinet  grew  out 
of  the  Privy  Council  by  a  process  of  restriction,  so 
now  a  smaller  group  of  ministers  is  coming  to  exer- 
cise some  of  the  functions  of  the  whole  group.  Add 
to  which  we  have  subordinate  executive  bodies,  like 
the  Home  Office,  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  Board  of 
Education,  and  the  Local  Government  Board,  to 
which  there  have  been  deputed  the  powers  both  of 
making  certain  kinds  of  laws  and  enforcing  them: 
government  by  administrative  order.  In  like  man- 
ner by  taking  for  government-purposes  more  and 
more  of  the  time  which  was  once  available  for  private 
members ;  by  the  cutting  down  of  debates  by  the  clos- 
ure; and  now  by  requiring  the  vote  for  an  entire 
department  to  be  passed  en  bloc,  without  criticism  of 
details;  we  are  shown  that  while  extension  of  the 
franchise  has  been  seeming  to  increase  the  liberties 
of  citizens,  their  liberties  have  been  decreased  by 


IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY.  167 

restricting  the  spheres  of  action  of  their  representa- 
tives. All  these  are  stages  in  that  concentration  of 
power  which  is  the  concomitant  of  Imperialism.* 
And  how  this  tendency  works  out  where  militancy 
becomes  active,  we  are  shown  by  the  measures  taken 
in  South  Africa — the  proclamation  of  martial  law 
by  a  governor,  who  thereby  becomes  in  so  far  a 
despot,  and  the  temporary  suspension  of  constitu- 
tional government:  a  suspension  which  many  so- 
called  loyalists  would  make  complete. 

Passing  by  this,  however,  let  us  note  the  extent 
to  which  the  citizen  is  the  servant  of  the  community 
in  disguised  ways.  Certain  ancient  usages  will  best 
make  this  clear.  During  times  when  complete  slav- 
ery was  mingled  with  serfdom,  the  serf,  tied  to  his 
plot,  rendered  to  his  lord  or  seigneur  many  dues  and 
services.  These  services,  or  corvees,  varied,  according 
to  the  period  and  the  place,  from  one  day's  labour 
to  six  days'  labour  in  the  week — from  partial  slavery 
to  complete  slavery.  Labours  and  exactions  of  these 
kinds  were  most  of  them  in  course  of  time  commuted 
for  money:  the  equivalence  between  so  much  tax  paid 
to  the  lord  and  so  much  work  done  for  him,  being 
thus  distinctly  recognized.  2^ow  in  so  far  as  the 
burden  is  concerned,  it  comes  to  the  same  thing  if  for 

*  Even  while  I  have  the  proof  in  my  hands  there  come  the 
new  rules  of  procedure,  further  diminishing  the  freedom  of  mem- 
bers. 


168  IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY. 

the  feudal  lord  we  substitute  the  central  government, 
and  for  local  money-payments  we  substitute  general 
taxes.  The  essential  question  for  the  citizen  is  what 
part  of  his  work  goes  to  the  power  which  rules  over 
him,  and  what  part  remains  available  for  satisfying 
his  own  wants.  Labour  demanded  by  the  State  is 
just  as  much  corvee  to  the  State  as  labour  demanded 
by  the  feudal  lord  was  corvee  to  him,  though  it  may 
not  be  called  so,  and  though  it  may  be  given  in  money 
instead  of  in  kind;  and  to  the  extent  of  this  corvee 
each  citizen  is  a  serf  to  the  community.  Some  five 
years  ago  M.  Guyot  calculated  that  in  France,  the 
civil  and  military  expenditure  absorbs  some  30  per 
cent,  of  the  national  produce,  or,  in  other  words,  that 
90  days  annually  of  the  average  citizen's  labour  is 
given  to  the  State  under  compulsion. 

Though  to  a  smaller  extent,  what  holds  in  France 
holds  here.  Xot  forgetting  the  heavy  burden  of 
St&te-corvees  which  the  Imperialism  of  past  days  be- 
queathed to  us — the  150  millions  of  debt  incurred 
for  the  American  war  and  the  50  millions  we  took 
over  with  the  East  India  Company's  possessions,  the 
interest  on  both  of  which  entails  on  citizens  extra 
labour  annually,  let  us  limit  ourselves  to  the  bur- 
dens Imperialism  now  commits  us  to.  From  a  statis- 
tical authority  second  to  none,  I  learn  that  100  mil- 
lions of  annual  expenditure  requires  from  the  aver- 
age citizen  the  labour  of  one  day  in  every  seven- 


IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY.  1G9 

teen,  that  is  to  say,  nearly  eighteen  days  in  the  year. 
As  the  present  permanent  expenditure  on  army  and 
navy  plus  the  interest  on  the  debt  recently  con- 
tracted amounts  to  about  76  millions,  it  results  that 
13^  days'  labour  per  annum  is  thus  imposed  on  the 
average  citizen  as  corvee.  And  then  there  comes  the 
£153,000,000  spent,  and  to  be  spent,  on  the  South 
African  and  Chinese  wars,  to  which  may  be  added, 
for  all  subsequent  costs  of  pensions,  repairs,  compen- 
sations, and  re-instatements,  a  sum  which  will  raise 
the  total  to  more  than  £200,000,000.  What  is  the 
taxation  which  direct  expenditure  and  interest  on 
loans  will  entail,  the  reader  may  calculate.  He  has 
before  him  the  data  for  an  estimate  of  the  extra 
number  of  days  annually,  during  which  Imperialism 
will  require  him  to  work  for  the  Government — extra 
number,  I  say,  because  to  meet  the  ordinary  State- 
expenditure,  there  must  always  be  a  large  number 
of  days  spent  by  him  as  a  State-labourer.  Doubtless 
one  who  is  satisfied  by  names  instead  of  things,  as 
the  Romans  were,  will  think  this  statement  absurd; 
but  he  who  understands  by  freedom  the  ability  to  use 
his  powers  for  his  own  ends,  with  no  greater  hindrance 
than  is  implied  by  the  like  ability  of  each  other  citi- 
zen, will  see  that  in  whatever  disguised  ways  he  is 
obliged  to  use  his  abilities  for  State-purposes,  he  is  to 
that  extent  a  serf  of  the  State;  and  that  as  fast  as 

our  growing  Imperialism  augments  the  amount  of 

12 


170  IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY. 

such  compulsory  service,  lie  is  to  that  extent  more 
and  more  a  serf  of  the  State. 

And  then  beyond  the  roundabout  services  given 
by  the  citizen  under  the  form  of  direct  taxes  and 
under  the  form  of  indirect  taxes,  severally  equiva- 
lent to  so  many  days'  work  that  would  else  have  ele- 
vated the  lives  of  himself  and  his  belongings,  there 
will  presently  come  the  actual  or  potential  service 
as  a  soldier,  demanded  by  the  State  to  carry  out  an 
imperialist  policy — a  service  which,  as  those  in  South 
Africa  can  tell  us,  often  inflicts  under  the  guise  of 
fine  names  a  slavery  harder  than  that  which  the  negro 
bears,  with  the  added  risk  of  death. 

Even  were  it  possible  to  bring  home  to  men  the 
extent  to  which  their  lives  are,  and  presently  will  be 
still  more,  subordinated  to  State-requirements,  so  as 
to  leave  them  less  and  less  owned  by  themselves,  little 
effect  would  be  produced.  So  long  as  the  passion  for 
mastery  overrides  all  others  the  slavery  that  goes 
along  with  Imperialism  will  be  tolerated.  Among 
men  who  do  not  pride  themselves  on  the  possession 
of  jmrely  human  traits,  but  on  the  possession  of  traits 
which  they  have  in  common  with  brutes,  and  in  whose 
mouths  "  bull-dog  courage  "  is  equivalent  to  manhood 
— among  people  who  take  their  point  of  honour  from 
the  prize-ring,  in  which  the  combatant  submits  to 
pain,  injury,  and  risk  of  death,  in  the  determination 
to  prove  himself  "  the  better  man,"  no  deterrent  con- 


IMPERIALISM  AND  SLAVERY.  171 

siderations  like  the  above  will  have  any  weight.  So 
long  as  they  continue  to  conquer  other  peoples  and 
to  hold  them  in  subjection,  they  will  readily  merge 
their  personal  liberties  in  the  power  of  the  State, 
and  hereafter  as  heretofore  accept  the  slavery  that 
goes  along  with  Imperialism. 


KE-BAKBAKIZATIOK 

All  societies,  be  they  those  savage  tribes  which 
have  acquired  some  political  structure  or  those  na- 
tions which  have  grown  vast  by  conquering  adjacent 
nations,  show  that,  as  said  above,  the  cardinal  trait 
of  fighting  peoples  is  the  subjection  of  man  to  man 
and  of  group  to  group.  Graduated  subordination, 
which  is  the  method  of  army-organization,  becomes 
more  and  more  the  method  of  civil  organization 
where  militancy  is  chronic;  since  where  militancy  is 
chronic,  the  civil  part  becomes  little  else  than  a  com- 
missariat supplying  the  wants  of  the  militant  part, 
and  is  more  and  more  subject  to  the  same  discipline. 
Further,  familiar  facts  prove  that  emergence  from 
those  barbaric  types  of  society  evolved  by  chronic 
militancy,  brings  with  it  a  decrease  of  this  graduated 
subordination,  and  there  results,  as  recent  centuries 
have  shown,  an  increase  of  freedom.  To  which  let 
it  be  added  that  where,  as  among  ourselves,  the  mili- 
tant activities  have  for  ages  been  less  marked  and  the 
militant  organization  less  pronounced,  the  growth  of 
free  institutions  begins  earlier  and  advances  further. 
172 


RE-BARBARIZATION.  173 

An  obvious  corollary  is  that  a  cardinal  trait  in  the 
process  of  re-barbarization  is  the  re-growth  of  gradu- 
ated subordination.    Let  us  contemplate  the  facts. 

The  United  States  furnishes  a  fit  looking-glass. 
Since  the  days  when  there  grew  up  local  "  bosses  " 
to  whom  clusters  of  voters  were  obedient,  there  has 
been  a  development  of  "  bosses  "  whose  authorities 
extend  over  w7ider  areas;  until  now  men  of  the  type 
of  Piatt,  and  Hanna,  and  Croker  mainly  determine 
the  elections,  municipal  and  central.  Conventions 
formed  of  delegates  supposed  to  represent  the  wills 
of  their  respective  localities,  have  become  bodies 
which  merely  register  the  decisions  of  certain  heads 
wdio  nominally  advise  but  practically  dictate.  And 
so  completely  has  this  system  submerged  the  tradi- 
tions of  individual  freedom,  that  now  the  assertion 
of  such  freedom  has  become  a  discredit,  and  the  in- 
dependent citizen,  here  and  there  found,  who  will 
not  surrender  his  right  of  private  judgment,  bears 
the  contemptuous  name  of  "  mugwump." 

In  England  the  Caucus,  not  yet  supreme  over  the 
individual,  has  still  in  large  measure  deprived  him  of 
what  electoral  freedom  he  had  during  the  generation 
following  the  Reform  Bill;  wdien,  as  I  know  from 
personal  experience,  the  initiative  of  each  citizen 
(even  a  non-elector)  was  of  some  effect.  Xow,  gov- 
erning bodies  in  each  constituency  undertake  to  judge 
for  all  members  of  their  respective  parties,  who  are 


174  RE-BARBARIZATION. 

obliged  to  accept  the  candidates  chosen  for  them. 
Practically  these  bodies  have  become  electoral  oli- 
garchies. Similarly  in  the  House  of  Commons  itself, 
this  retrogressive  movement,  shown  in  ways  described 
some  pages  back,  is  shown  in  further  ways.  There 
is  the  change  which  a  few  years  ago  cut  off  "  the 
privilege  of  ventilating  grievances  before  going  into 
Committee  of  Supply  " — cut  off  that  which  was  the 
primary  privilege  of  burgesses  sent  up  from  their  re- 
spective constituencies  in  early  days;  since,  on  the 
rectification  or  mitigation  of  grievances,  partially  de- 
pended the  granting  of  supplies.  And  then,  recently, 
a  kindred  resolution  has  negatived  the  right  of  mov- 
ing amendments  to  the  motion  for  going  into  Com- 
mittee of  Ways  and  Means.  Retrogression  is  thus 
shown  by  increasingly  subordinating  the  citizen,  alike 
as  elector  and  as  representative. 

Ecclesiastical  movements  now  going  on,  show  us 
a  kindred  change.  There  is  a  return  towards  that 
subjection  to  a  priesthood  characteristic  of  barbaric 
types  of  Society.  Rebellion  of  the  Church  against 
the  civil  power,  is  an  indication  of  desire  for  that 
social  regime  which  once  made  kings  subject  to  the 
Pope.  Throughout  the  hierarchy  the  strengthening 
of  sacerdotalism  is  the  aim.  secret  if  not  avowed:  and 
the  heads  of  the  hierarchy  when  asked  to  put  a  check 
on  those  practices  which  assimilate  the  Church  of 
England  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  evade  and  shuffle 


RE-BARBARIZATION.  175 

in  such  ways  as  to  let  them  go  on,  while  they,  are 
energetic  in  resisting  efforts  to  prevent  the  assimila- 
tion. For  a  generation  past  there  have  been  endeav- 
ours to  mark  off  the  priesthood  as  a  body  of  inter- 
mediaries between  God  and  man.  Confession,  the 
performance  of  a  quasi-mass,  and  various  ceremonies 
with  incense  accompaniment,  have  tended  more  and 
more  to  elevate  the  clerical  class:  the  effects  being 
re-inforced  by  gorgeous  robes  and  jewelled  symbols, 
such  as  were  common  in  mediaeval  days  and  are  akin 
to  those  of  barbaric  peoples  at  large. 

For  the  changes  which  have  thus  been  spreading 
throughout  our  social  organization,  political  and  re- 
ligious, there  have  been  several  causes.  The  initial 
one  was  the  setting  up  of  that  modest  defensive  or- 
ganization, well  justified  under  the  circumstances, 
known  originally  as  the  Volunteer  movement. 
"When,  by  his  policy,  Louis  Napoleon  made  it  doubt- 
ful whether  he  had  not  in  view  an  invasion  of  Eng- 
land, there  arose  something  like  a  cry  "  To  arms!  " 
embodied  by  the  Poet  Laureate  in  his  verses  "  Form, 
riflemen,  form."  There  resulted,  and  thereafter  con- 
tinually grew,  a  body  of  civilians  who  were  weekly 
subjected  to  drill  and  weekly  exercised  themselves 
in  rifle  shooting:  both  processes  awakening  in  them 
the  slumbering  militant  ideas  and  sentiments  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  early  ages  of  perpetual 
warfare.     The  formation  into  companies  and  regi- 


176  RE-BARB  ARIZ  ATION. 

ments,  the  passing  through  regular  evolutions,  the 
subjection  to  officers,  the  marching  through  the 
streets  after  their  bands,  joined  with  ambitions  to 
occupy  posts  of  command,  cultivated  in  the  young 
men  of  our  towns  the  thoughts  and  emotions  appro- 
priate to  fighting.  A  revived  interest  in  war  neces- 
sarily resulted;  and  the  partially  dormant  instincts 
of  the  savage,  readily  aroused,  have  been  exercising 
themselves  if  not  on  actual  foes  then  on  foes  con- 
ceived to  be  invading  us. 

For  these  twenty  years  there  has  been  at  work 
another  widespread  cause,  which  few  will  at  first  rec- 
ognize as  a  cause,  but  the  effects  of  which  analysis 
will  make  clear.  The  quality  of  a  passion  is  in  great 
measure  the  same  whatever  the  object  exciting  it. 
Fear  aroused  by  a  mad  dog  is  at  the  core  like  the 
fear  produced  by  the  raised  weapon  of  an  assassin; 
and  the  hate  felt  for  a  disgusting  animal  is  of  the 
same  nature  as  the  hate  felt  for  a  man  very  much 
disliked.  Especially  when  the  objects  which  excite 
the  passions  are  imaginary,  is  there  likely  to  be  little 
difference  between  the  states  of  mind  produced.  The 
cultivation  of  animosity  towards  one  imaginary  ob- 
ject, strengthening  the  sentiment  of  animosity  at 
large,  makes  it  easier  to  arouse  animosity  towards 
another  imaginary  object. 

I  make  these  remarks  a  propos  of  the  Salvation 
Army.     The  word  is  significant — Army;  as  are  the 


RE-BARB  ARIZATION.  177 

names  for  the  ranks,  from  the  so-called  "  General," 
descending  through  brigadiers,  colonels,  majors, 
down  to  local  sub-officers,  all  wearing  uniforms. 
This  system  is  like  in  idea  and  in  sentiment  to  that 
of  an  actual  army.  Then  what  are  the  feelings  ap- 
pealed to?  The  "Official  Gazette  of  the  Salvation 
Army  "  is  entitled  The  War  Cry;  and  the  motto  con- 
spicuous on  the  title-page  is  "  Blood  and  Fire." 
Doubtless  it  will  be  said  that  it  is  towards  the  prin- 
ciple of  evil,  personal  or  impersonal — towards  "  the 
devil  and  all  his  works  " — that  the  destructive  senti- 
ments are  invoked  by  this  title  and  this  motto.  So 
it  will  be  said  that  in  a  hymn,  conspicuous  in  the 
number  of  the  paper  I  have  in  hand,  the  like  animus 
is  displayed  by  the  expressions  which  I  cull  from 
the  first  thirty  lines : — "  Made  us  warriors  for  ever, 
Sent  us  in  the  field  to  fight  .  .  .  We  shall  win  with 
fire  and  blood  .  .  .  Stand  to  your  arms,  the  foe  is 
nigh,  The  powers  of  hell  surround  .  .  .  The  day  of 
battle  is  at  hand!  Go  forth  to  glorious  war."  These 
and  others  like  them  are  stimuli  to  the  fighting  pro- 
pensities, and  the  excitements  of  song  joined  with 
martial  processions  and  instrumental  music  cannot 
fail  to  raise  high  those  slumbering  passions  which 
are  ready  enough  to  burst  out  even  in  the  intercourse 
of  ordinary  life.  Such  appeals  as  there  may  be  to 
the  gentler  sentiments  which  the  creed  inculcates, 
are  practically  lost  amid  these  loud-voiced  invoca- 


178  RE-BARBARIZ  ATION. 

tions.  Out  of  mixed  and  contradictory  exhortations 
the  people  who  listen  respond  to  those  which  are  most 
congruous  with  their  own  natures  and  are  little  af- 
fected by  the  rest;  so  that  under  the  nominal  forms 
of  the  religion  of  amity  there  are  daily  exercised  the 
feelings  appropriate  to  the  religion  of  enmity.  And 
then,  as  before  suggested,  these  destructive  passions 
directed  towards  "  the  enemy,"  as  the  principle  of 
evil  is  called,  are  easily  directed  towards  an  enemy 
otherwise  conceived.  If  for  wicked  spirits  are  sub- 
stituted wicked  men,  these  are  regarded  with  the  same 
feelings;  and  when  calumnies  sown  broadcast  make 
it  appear  that  certain  people  are  wicked  men,  the 
anger  and  hate  which  have  been  perpetually  fostered 
are  vented  upon  them. 

Verifying  facts  are  pointed  out  to  me  even  while 
I  dictate,  showing  that  not  in  the  Salvation  Army 
alone  but  in  the  Church-services  held  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  departure  of  troops  for  South  Africa, 
certain  hymns  are  used  in  a  manner  which  substitutes 
for  the  spiritual  enemy  the  human  enemy.  Thus  for 
a  generation  past,  under  cover  of  the  forms  of  a 
religion  which  preaches  peace,  love,  and  forgiveness, 
there  has  been  a  perpetual  shouting  of  the  words 
"  war  "  and  "  blood,"  "  fire  "  and  "  battle,"  and  a  con- 
tinual exercise  of  the  antagonistic  feelings. 

This  diffusion  of  military  ideas,  military  senti- 
ments, military  organization,  military  discipline,  has 


RE-BARBARIZATION.  179 

been  going  on  everywhere.  There  is  the  competing 
body,  the  Chnrch  Army,  which,  not  particularly  ob- 
trusive, we  may  presume  from  its  name  follows  simi- 
lar lines;  and  there  is,  showing  more  clearly  the  eccle- 
siastical bias  in  the  same  direction,  the  Church  Lads' 
Brigade,  with  its  uniform,  arms,  and  drill.  In  these 
as  in  other  things  the  clerical  and  the  military  are  in 
full  sympathy.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Warre,  head  master 
of  Eton,  reads  a  paper  at  the  United  Service  Insti- 
tution, arguing  that  in  the  public  secondary  schools 
there  should  be  diffusion  of  the  elements  of  mili- 
tary science,  as  well  as  exercise  in  military  drill, 
manoeuvres,  use  of  fire-arms,  &c.  So,  too,  another 
head  master,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gull,  in  a  lecture  to 
the  College  of  Preceptors  under  chairmanship  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Bevan,  tells  us  that  there  are  79  cadet- 
corps  in  various  public  schools;  that  efforts  are  being 
made  to  "  organize  drill  in  elementary  schools  and  for 
boys  in  the  lower  ranks  of  life  ";  that  a  committee 
of  the  Head  Masters'  Conference  resolved  unani- 
mously that  in  public  secondary  schools  boys  over  15 
should  receive  military  drill  and  instruction;  and 
that,  by  the  suggestion  of  these  "  reverend  "  head 
masters,  a  Military  Instruction  Bill,  embodying  their 
views  and  favoured  by  the  War  Office,  has  been 
brought  before  both  Houses  of  Parliament.*  Simi- 
larly during  the  Guthrie  Commemoration  at  Clifton 
*  See  Educational  Times,  June  1,  1901. 


180  RE-BARB  ARIZ  ATION. 

College,  the  head  master,  the  Rev.  Canon  Glaze- 
brook,  in  presence  of  two  bishops,  glorified  the  part 
which  those  educated  at  Clifton  had  taken  in  the 
South  African  War :  enlarging  with  pride  on  "  so 
noble  a  contribution  in  such  a  patriotic  cause  "  as 
the  nineteen  old  Cliftonians  who  had  fallen;  dilating, 
too,  on  the  increasing  zeal  of  the  school  in  military 
matters.  And  now  at  Cambridge  the  Senate  urges 
that  the  University  should  take  steps  towards  the 
organization  of  instruction  in  military  sciences. 

More  conspicuous  growths  of  like  nature  have 
taken  place.  We  have  the  reviews,  manoeuvres,  and 
training-camps  of  the  Volunteers,  and  the  annual 
rifle-competitions  now  at  Wimbledon  now  at  Bisley; 
we  have  the  permanent  camps  at  ShornclifTe  and  Al- 
dershot,  and  are  about  to  have  a  much  larger  one 
on  Salisbury  Plain.  Fifty  years  ago  we  had  no  such 
incidents  as  the  "  passages  of  arms  "  or  tournaments 
now  held  periodically,  nor  had  we  any  military  and 
naval  exhibitions.  Lastly,  showing  the  utter  change 
of  social  sentiment,  it  was  resolved  at  a  Mansion 
House  meeting  that  the  Great  Exhibition  of  1851, 
which  was  expected  to  inaugurate  universal  peace, 
should  be  commemorated  in  1901  by  a  Naval  and 
Military  Exhibition:  an  anti-militant  display  having 
for  its  jubilee  a  militant  display! 

The  temper  generated  by  these  causes  has  re- 
sulted in  the  outbursts  of  violence  occurring  all  over 


RE-BARBARIZATION.  181 

England  in  thirty  towns  large  and  small,  where  those 
who  entertain  opinions  disliked  by  the  majority  re- 
specting our  treatment  of  the  Boers,  have  been  made 
the  victims  of  mobs — mobs  which  not  only  suppressed 
even  private  meetings  and  ill-treated  those  who  pro- 
posed to  take  part  in  them,  kicking  and  even  tarring 
them  in  the  public  streets,  but  attacked  the  premises 
of  those  who  were  known  to  be  against  the  war, 
smashing  shop-windows,  breaking  into  houses,  and 
even  firing  into  them.  And  now  after  these  breaches 
of  the  law,  continued  for  two  years,  have  been  habit- 
ually condoned  by  the  authorities,  we  find  leading 
newspapers  applauding  the  police  for  having  "  judi- 
ciously refrained  "  from  interfering  with  a  mob  in 
its  ill-treatment  of  Stop-the-War  speakers!  Surely 
a  society  thus  characterized  and  thus  governed  is  a 
fit  habitat  for  Hooligans. 

Naturally  along  with  this  exaltation  of  brute 
force  in  its  armed  form,  as  seen  in  military  organ- 
izations, secular  and  sacred,  as  well  as  in  the  devo- 
tion of  teaching  institutions  to  fostering  it,  and  along 
with  these  manifestations  of  popular  passion,  showing 
how  widely  the  trait  of  coerciveness,  which  is  the  es- 
sential element  in  militancy,  has  pervaded  the  nation, 
there  has  gone  a  cultivation  of  skilled  physical  force 
under  the  form  of  athleticism.  The  word  is  quite 
modern,  for  the  reason  that  a  generation  ago  the  facts 
to  be  embraced  under  it  were  not  sufficiently  numer- 


182  RE-BARB  ARIZATION. 

ous  and  conspicuous  to  call  for  it.  In  my  early  days 
"  sports/'  so  called,  were  almost  exclusively  repre- 
sented by  one  weekly  paper,  BelVs  Life  in  London, 
found  I  am  told  in  the  haunts  of  rowdies  and  in 
taverns  of  a  low  class.  Since  then,  the  growth  has 
been  such  that  the  acquirement  of  skill  in  leading- 
games  has  become  an  absorbing  occupation.  The 
cricket-matches  of  local  clubs  are  topics  of  interest 
not  only  in  their  localities  but  elsewhere,  and  the 
names  of  celebrated  players  are  in  the  mouths  of 
multitudes.  There  are  professionals  and  there  are 
courses  of  training;  so  that  what  was  originally  a 
game  has  become  a  business.  Similarly  with  rowing, 
which  has  its  competitions  on  all  rivers  large  enough, 
and  its  set  matches,  of  which  those  between  the  Uni- 
versities and  those  at  Henley  have  become  national 
events,  drawing  enormous  crowds,  as  does  also  the 
Universities'  cricket-match.  And  then  football,  in 
my  boyhood  occupying  no  public  attention,  has  now 
provision  made  for  it  in  every  locality,  and  its  lead- 
ing contests  between  paid  players,  draw  their  tens  of 
thousands  of  spectators — nay  even,  as  at  Sydenham 
lately,  a  hundred  thousand  spectators — whose  natures 
are  such  that  police  are  often  required  for  the  pro- 
tection of  umpires.  It  may,  indeed,  be  remarked 
that  this  game,  which  has  now  become  the  most  popu- 
lar, is  also  the  most  brutalizing;  for  the  merciless 
struggles  among  the  players,  and  the  intensity  of  their 


RE-BARBARIZATION.  183 

antagonisms,  prove,  even  without  the  frequent  in- 
flictions of  injuries  and  occasional  deaths,  that  the 
game  approaches  as  nearly  to  a  fight  as  lack  of  weap- 
ons allows. 

"  Sports  "  of  past  times,  which  law  had  forbidden 
because  of  their  brutality,  are  re-appearing.  Occa- 
sionally one  reads  of  secret  cock-fights  discovered  by 
the  police  and  stopped;  and  now,  in  the  resuscitated 
periodical  of  Johnson,  The  Rambler,  there  is  a  delib- 
erate advocacy  of  cock-fighting  as  an  amusement.  Of 
like  meaning  is  the  revival  of  pugilism:  the  illegal 
prize-fights  having  been  replaced  by  so-called  "  glove- 
fights,'7  differing  but  nominally.  Though  within 
these  few  years  four  deaths  have  resulted,  yet  such 
is  the  sympathy  of  the  authorities  with  the  "  sport," 
so  called,  that  the  manslaughters  have  on  one  or  other 
plea  been  in  every  case  condoned.  Along  with  this 
development  of  human  athletics  has  gone  a  develop- 
ment of  animal  athletics,  or  racing,  under  the  form 
of  increase  in  the  number  of  race-meetings;  and  both 
kinds  have  been  accompanied  by  an  immense  exten- 
sion of  betting  and  gambling — vices  pervading  all 
classes  and  all  places,  from  fashionable  drawing-rooms 
down  to  slums — vices  furthering  re-barbarization, 
since  pleasures  obtained  at  the  cost  of  pains  to  others, 
necessarily  entail  a  searing  of  the  sympathies. 

Meanwhile,  to  satisfy  the  demand  journalism  has 
been  developing,  so  that  besides  sundry  daily  and 


1 S4  RE-B  ARBARIZATION. 

weekly  papers  devoted  wholly  to  sports,  the  ordinary 
daily  and  weekly  papers  give  reports  of  "  events  "  in 
all  localities,  and  not  unfrequently  a  daily  paper  has 
a  whole  page  occupied  with  them.  A  grave  con- 
comitant is  to  be  noted.  While  bodily  superiority 
is  coming  to  the  front,  mental  superiority  is  retreat- 
ing into  the  background.  It  has  long  been  remarked 
that  a  noted  athlete  is  more  honoured  than  a  student 
who  has  come  out  highest  from  the  examinations; 
and  if  there  needs  ocular  proof  we  have  it  in  the 
illustrated  papers,  which  continually  reproduce  pho- 
tographs of  competing  crews  and  competing  teams, 
while  nowhere  do  we  see  a  photograph  of,  say,  all 
the  wranglers  of  the  year.  How  extreme  is  this  pre- 
dominance of  athleticism  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
Sir  Michael  Foster,  when  a  candidate  for  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  University  of  London,  was  described 
as  specially  fitted  because  he  was  a  good  cricketer! 
"  All  cricketers  will,  of  course,  vote  for  him,"  wrote 
in  The  Times  a  B.A.  who  had  "  played  in  the  same 
eleven  with  him."  Thus  various  changes  point  back 
to  those  medieval  days  when  courage  and  bodily 
power  were  the  sole  qualifications  of  the  ruling 
classes,  while  such  culture  as  existed  was  confined  to 
priests  and  the  inmates  of  monasteries. 

Literature,  journalism,  and  art,  have  all  been  aid- 
ing in  this  process  of  re-barbarization.  For  a  long 
time  there  have  flourished  novel-writers  who  have 


RE-BARBAPJZATION.  185 

rung  the  changes  on  narratives  of  crime  and  stories 
of  sanguinary  deeds.  Others  have  been  supplying 
boys  and  youths  with  tales  full  of  plotting  and  fight- 
ing and  bloodshed:  millions  of  such  having  of  late 
years  been  circulated;45'  and  there  have  been  numer- 
ous volumes  of  travel  in  which  encounters  with  na- 
tives and  the  killing  of  big  game  have  been  the  ad- 
vertised attractions.  Various  war-books  have  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  Prof.  Creasy's  Fifteen  Decisive 
Battles  of  the  World  with  its  thirty-odd  editions;  and 
now,  in  the  current  number  of  the  Athenceum,  I  see 
noted  as  forthcoming  two  works  of  this  genus — the 
one,  Great  Battles  of  the  World,  and  the  other  All 
the  World's  Fighting  Ships  for  1901,  an  annual  pub- 
lication. As  indicating  most  clearly  the  state  of  na- 
tional feeling,  we  have  the  immense  popularity  of 
Mr.  Rudyard  Kipling,  in  whose  writings  one-tenth 
of  nominal  Christianity  is  joined  with  nine-tenths  of 
real  paganism;  who  idealizes  the  soldier  and  glories 
in  the  triumphs  of  brute  force ;  and  who,  in  depicting 
school-life,  brings  to  the  front  the  barbarizing  activ- 
ities and  feelings  and  shows  little  respect  for  a  civil- 
izing culture. 

So,  too,  the  literature  of  the  periodicals  reeks 
with  violence.  In  the  American  magazines  having 
wide  English  circulations,  there  went  on,  even  before 
the  recent  conquests,  rechauffe  narratives  of  the  Civil 

*  See  Academy,  June  5,  1897. 
13 


186  RE-BARBARIZATION. 

War — accounts  of  this  or  the  other  part  of  the  cam- 
paign and  biographies  of  this  or  the  other  leader. 
]STot  content  with  battles  and  great  captains  of  recent 
times,  editors  have,  to  satisfy  the  appetites  of  read- 
ers, gone  back  to  the  remote  past  as  well  as  to  the 
near  past.  The  life  and  conquests  of  Alexander  the 
Great  have  been  set  forth  afresh  with  illustrations; 
and  in  serial  articles,  as  also  in  book  form,  Napoleon 
has  again  served  as  a  subject  for  biography:  Welling- 
ton and  Nelson  too,  have  been  resuscitated.  Nay, 
even  memoirs  of  celebrated  pirates  and  privateers 
have  been  exhumed  to  meet  the  demand.  At  the 
same  time  the  fiction  filling  our  monthly  magazines, 
has  been  mainly  sanguinary.  Tales  of  crimes  and 
deeds  of  violence,  drawings  of  men  fighting,  men 
overpowered,  men  escaping,  of  daggers  raised,  pis- 
tols levelled — these,  in  all  varieties  of  combination, 
have  appealed  to  our  latent  savagery.  Among  other 
stories  of  this  class  there  wTere  recently  two  in  each 
of  which  the  attraction  was  a  prize-fight,  made  pi- 
quant by  wood-cuts.  So  has  it  been  with  our  pic- 
torial newspapers.  Even  before  the  recent  wars  there 
were  ever  found  occasions  for  representing  bloody 
combats,  or  else  the  appliances  of  destruction  naval 
and  military,  or  else  the  leading  men  using  them. 
I  suppose  that  of  late  such  scenes  and  portraits  have 
been  more  numerous  still — I  say  I  suppose,  because 
for  years  past,  disgusted  with  these  stimuli  to  brutal- 


RE-BARBARIZATION.  187 

ity,  I  have  deliberately  avoided  looking  at  the  illus- 
trated weekly  journals. 

Thus  on  every  side  we  see  the  ideas  and  feelings 
and  institutions  appropriate  to  peaceful  life,  replaced 
by  those  appropriate  to  fighting  life.  The  continual 
increases  of  the  army,  the  formation  of  permanent 
camps,  the  institution  of  public  military  contests  and 
military  exhibitions,  have  conduced  to  this  result. 
The  drills,  and  displays,  and  competitions,  of  civilian 
soldiers  (not  uncalled  for  when  they  began)  have  gone 
on  exercising  the  combative  feelings.  Perpetual  ex- 
citements of  the  destructive  passions  which,  in  the 
War  Cry  and  in  the  hymns  of  General  Booth's  fol- 
lowers, have  made  battle  and  blood  and  fire  familiar, 
and  under  the  guise  of  fighting  against  evil  have 
thrust  into  the  background  the  gentler  emotions,  have 
done  the  like.  Similarly  in  schools,  military  organiza- 
ation  and  discipline  have  been  cultivating  the  instinct 
of  antagonism  in  each  rising  generation.  More  and 
more  the  spirit  of  conflict  has  been  exercised  by 
athletic  games,  interest  in  which  has  been  actively 
fostered  first  by  the  weekly  Press  and  now  by  the 
daily  Press;  and  with  increase  of  the  honours  given 
to  physical  prowess  there  has  been  decrease  of  the 
honours  given  to  mental  prowess.  Meanwhile  liter- 
ature and  art  have  been  aiding.  Books  treating  of 
battles,  conquests,  and  the  men  who  conducted  them, 
have  been  widely  diffused,  and  greedily  read.     Peri- 


188  RE-BAEBARIZATION. 

odicals  full  of  stories  made  interesting  by  killing, 
with  accompanying  illustrations,  have  every  month 
ministered  to  the  love  of  destruction;  as  have,  too, 
the  weekly  illustrated  journals.  In  all  places  and 
in  all  ways  there  has  been  going  on  during  the  past 
fifty  years  a  recrudescence  of  barbaric  ambitions, 
ideas  and  sentiments  and  an  unceasing  culture  of 
blood-thirst. 

If  there  needs  a  striking  illustration  of  the  result, 
we  have  it  in  the  dictum  of  the  people's  Laureate, 
that  the  "  lordliest  life  on  earth  "  is  one  spent  in 
seeking  to  "bag"  certain  of  our  fellow-men! 


KEGIMEJSTTATIOK 

At  first  sight  the  title  "  Regimentation  "  seems 
to  imply  nothing  more  than  a  description  in  detail 
of  the  changes  set  forth  above;  but  while  in  part  it 
brings  into  view  one  side  of  these  changes,  and  sug- 
gests their  common  tendency,  it  serves  a  further  end. 
I  use  it  here  to  express  certain  wider  changes  which 
are  their  concomitants.  For  as  indicated  some  pages 
back,  and  as  shown  at  length  in  The  Principles  of 
Sociology,  in  a  chapter  on  "  The  Militant  Type,"  that 
graduated  subordination  which  we  see  in  an  army, 
characterizes  a  militant  society  at  large  more  and 
more  as  militancy  increases. 

System,  regulation,  uniformity,  compulsion — 
these  words  are  being  made  familiar  in  discussions 
on  social  questions.  Everywhere  has  arisen  an  un- 
questioned assumption  that  all  things  should  be  ar- 
ranged after  a  definite  plan.  The  recent  course  of 
public  opinion  shows  how  powerless,  when  opposed 
to  prejudices  and  fancies,  are  those  large  truths  which 
science  discloses.  One  might  have  thought  that  in 
these  days  when  it  has  been  proved  that  the  progress 

189 


190  REGIMENTATION. 

of  all  life  has  been  made  possible  only  by  unceasing 
variations,  and  that  uniformity  implies  quiescence 
ending  in  death — one  might  have  thought  that  the 
tendency  would  be,  if  not  to  foster  variety,  at  any 
rate  to  give  full  opportunity  for  it.  Yet  a  re- 
verse tendency  has  been  produced  by  the  causes  ex- 
plained. 

Though  we  have  not  reached  a  state  like  that 
boasted  of  by  a  French  minister  who  said — "  Now  all 
the  children  in  France  are  saying  the  same  lesson," 
yet  if  we  compare  our  present  state  with  our  state 
before  board-schools  were  set  up,  we  see  a  movement 
towards  a  like  ideal.  We  have  a  "  Code  "  to  which 
managers  and  teachers  must  conform;  and  we  have 
inspectors  who  see  that  the  conceptions  of  the  cen- 
tral authority  are  carried  out.  So  far  along  some 
lines  has  the  regimental  system  gone,  that  the  Board 
of  Education  has  had  power  to  direct  the  metric  sys- 
tem to  be  taught :  over-taxed  children  are,  at  the  will 
of  the  commanding  officer,  made  to  learn  sets  of  meas- 
ures which  are  not  in  use.  Moreover,  out  of  the 
elementary  course  there  has  developed  a  secondary 
course;  and  now  have  come  technical  schools  to  give 
boys  knowledge  and  aptitude  fitting  them  for  various 
businesses.  Schools  of  science,  art-schools,  and 
schools  of  design,  too,  have  been  set  up;  so  that  the 
State  now  prepares  its  pupils  not  for  life  in  general 
only,  but  also  for  special  careers.     Meanwhile,  as  I 


REGIMENTATION.  191 

prophesied  thirty  years  ago  would  happen,  the  step 
has  been  taken  from  rearing  the  mind  to  rearing  the 
body.  In  pursuance  of  the  dogma  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  community  towards  the  child  "  to  see  that  it 
has  a  proper  chance  as  regards  its  equipment  in  life," 
it  is  held  that  food  must  be  provided  for  hungry  chil- 
dren; and  there  have  been  proposals  to  give  shoes  if 
parents  fail  to  supply  them.  When  it  is  added  that 
there  are  over  30,000  children  in  industrial  and  tru- 
ant schools,  maintained  and  officered  by  the  State, 
we  see  that  even  in  a  single  generation  great  strides 
have  been  taken  towards  a  regimental  organization 
for  moulding  children  after  an  approved  pattern. 

Having  been  prepared  for  life  by  government, 
citizens  must  have  their  activities  controlled  by  law. 
The  late  Mr.  Pleydell-Bouverie  found  that  in  Eliza- 
beth's reign,  out  of  269  Acts,  68  were  for  regulating 
trade;  and  under  James  the  First  33  out  of  167  were 
similarly  directed.  These,  all  found  useless  or  mis- 
chievous, have  been  repealed.  But  now,  along  with 
resuscitation  of  an  older  social  type,  there  is  a  recur- 
rence of  old  leanings  towards  the  State-overseeing 
of  industry.  The  restriction  of  child-labour  in  fac- 
tories opened  the  way  for  regulations  protecting  more 
and  more  numerous  classes  of  workers.  Though  the 
loss  suffered  by  a  mine-owner  from  an  explosion  is  a 
stronger  deterrent  from  risks  than  anything  else,  yet 
it  is  thought  that  precautions  against  explosions,  can 


192  REGIMENTATION. 

be  insured  only  by  inspectors :  a  belief  which  survives 
frequent  explosions.  The  State,  which  has  many  ac- 
cidents to  its  own  vessels  and  often  loses  them,  under- 
takes to  protect  men  in  the  merchant  service  through 
a  body  of  officials;  though  judging  from  the  number 
of  shipwrecks  the  effect  is  not  manifest. 

But  let  us  turn  from  these  scattered  examples  to 
examples  of  more  general  kinds.  During  the  first 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  while  yet  municipal 
governments  were  undeveloped,  the  activities  of  each 
were  limited  to  a  few  all-essential  matters — the  main- 
tenance of  order  by  a  small  staff  of  constables,  the 
paving  and  cleaning  of  the  streets,  the  lighting  of 
them  by  oil  lamps,  the  making  and  maintaining  of 
sewers.  To  meet  the  growing  demands  for  conve- 
niences of  one  or  other  kind,  speculative  citizens  uni- 
ted their  means  and  risked  large  sums  in  the  hope  that 
while  subserving  public  wants  they  might  gain  rather 
than  lose.  Gas-companies  arose  early  in  the  century; 
and  from  them  the  town  authorities  bought  gas  for 
lighting  the  streets.  Presently  came  water-compa- 
nies which  on  reservoirs,  conduits,  and  distributing 
pipes,  spent  large  sums.  Thus  town  after  town  was 
greatly  advantaged  in  pursuance  of  ordinary  trade 
principles.*    But  in  place  of  these  private  combina- 

*  When  reading  socialist  and  collectivisl  writers,  who  ignore 
the  evils  which  towns-people  once  suffered,  and  vilify  men  who, 
while  seeking  profits,  achieved  these  groat  benefits  for  others,  I 


REGIMENTATION.  193 

tions  of  men,  investing  their  savings  and  looking  for 
interest,  as  men  at  large  do,  we  now  have  municipal 
organizations  which  are  usurping  these  businesses  one 
after  another  and  entering  upon  more.  By  the  cour- 
tesy of  the  Town-Clerk  of  Birmingham  I  have  ob- 
tained details  of  the  various  administrations  in  that 
city.  We  may  begin  with  the  all-essential  one — the 
police  force,  which  contains  800  men  of  seven  grades. 
Next  comes  the  public-works  department,  having 
eight  divisions  (including  streets,  trams,  sewers  and 
lighting),  employing  1,726  men  of  fourteen  denom- 
inations. In  the  water-supply  administration  we  find 
469  officials  bearing  twenty-five  different  names,  be- 
sides other  officials  in  the  new  Elan  works.  In  the 
gas-department,  there  are  2,845  employes  divided 
into  seven  classes;  and  then  comes  the  more  recent 
electric  supply  system  with  113  men  of  four  grades. 
After  these  may  be  named  the  fire-brigade  with  72 
men  in  five  grades.  The  baths  and  parks  divisions 
here  follow  with  their  137  employes  of  eleven  kinds. 

have  sometimes  thought  I  should  like  to  thrust  them  all  back  into 
"  the  good  old  times  " — times  before  decent  roads  had  been  made 
by  turnpike  trusts;  times  when  in  London  water  from  wells  and 
conduits  was  eked  out  by  water  carried  in  leathern  sacks  over  the 
backs  of  horses;  times  when  for  lighting  the  streets  people  had 
to  hang  candles  (?  lanterns)  out  of  their  windows,  and  when,  even 
much  later,  pleasure-seekers  were  shown  their  ways  home  at  night 
by  link-boys  carrying  torches.  Six  months'  experience  of  the 
miseries  borne  might  change  their  feelings  towards  the  companies 
they  now  speak  of  as  public  enemies. 


194  REGIMENTATION. 

Then  we  have  the  department  of  markets  and  fairs 
employing  45  men  of  six  kinds,  and  that  of  weights 
and  measures  employing  13  men  of  four  kinds. 
There  are  three  groups  under  the  Health  Committee, 
entitled  "  interception,"  "  sanitary,"  and  "  hospitals," 
of  which  the  first  has  585  men  of  four  grades  in  its 
pay,  the  next  75  men  of  five  grades,  and  the  last 
178  men  and  women  of  five  grades.  The  several 
subdivisions  of  the  estates  administration  (of  which 
one  concerns  the  law-courts)  employ  109  people  vari- 
ously distinguished.  Following  these  may  be  set 
down  the  City-asylum  and  the  lunatic-asylum,  of 
which  the  one  has  133  employes  of  eleven  kinds  and 
the  other  111  employes  of  sixteen  kinds.  After  the 
industrial  school,  which  occupies  18  variously  named 
officials,  come  the  school  of  art  with  its  branches, 
occupying  157,  and  the  technical  school  occupying 
66:  in  each  case  variously  classed.  Last  come  the 
museum  and  the  art-gallery  employing  29  bearing 
various  titles.  Over  all  these  preside  the  officials  of 
the  governing  body,  the  town-clerk's  department  and 
the  treasurer's  department,  the  one  with  15  and  the 
other  with  25  members  of  several  grades.  The  entire 
organization  includes  7,800,  very  soon  to  exceed 
8,000.  Thus  while  there  has  been  a  replacing  of 
joint-stock  companies  by  municipal  administrations, 
there  have  been  developing  many  other  administra- 
tions, undertaking  other  works.     Each  of  these  is, 


REGIMENTATION.  105 

as  we  see,  like  a  military  administration  in  having 
ranks  subordinate  one  to  another;  and  the  aggregate 
of  them  reminds  us  of  a  series  of  companies  united 
into  regiments  and  brigades  under  a  central  com- 
mand. 

To  Mr.  William  McBain  who  is  familiar  with  the 
municipal  government  of  Glasgow,  and  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  British  Association  held  there  last  year 
read  a  paper  on  the  subject,  I  am  indebted  for  the 
following  brief  account  of  the  public  organization  of 
that  city.  The  names  of  the  divisions  and  their  num- 
bers run  thus: — Headquarters,  60;  police  force, 
1,400;  works-department  (to  which  belongs  the  su- 
pervision of  new  and  existing  buildings,  streets  and 
drains),  600;  lighting-department,  700;  cleansing-de- 
partment, 600;  city  engineer  and  architect's  depart- 
ment, 12;  tramways,  3,500;  water-supply,  527;  gas, 
3,000;  electricity,  1,200;  telephones,  400;  fire-bri- 
gade, 121;  public  parks,  galleries,  museums  and  hous- 
ing department,  300;  baths  and  washing  houses,  — ; 
markets,  bazaars,  halls,  and  blocks,  150;  city  assessor's 
department,  40;  health  department,  700;  libraries, 
100;  labour  bureau,  3;  churches,  — ;  total,  13,413. 
In  addition  to  the  municipal  administrations  there 
are  in  both  cases  school-board  authorities  and  paro- 
chial authorities  with  their  staffs:  the  number  of 
graded  officials  and  employes  under  their  control  in 
Glasgow  being  4,000. 


196  REGIMENTATION. 

As  intimated  above,  regimentation  is  another  as- 
pect of  that  general  retrogression  shown  in  growing 
imperialism  and  accompanying  re-barbarization. 
Curious  evidence  of  the  way  in  which  the  one,  like 
the  other  two,  is  carrying  us  back  to  medievalism, 
is  furnished  by  the  town-records  of  Beverley  recently 
published.  The  various  businesses  were  of  course, 
after  the  general  usage  of  the  time,  carried  on  by 
members  of  gilds,  which,  including  certain  minor 
ones,  numbered  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
twenty-three.  These  groups  of  merchants,  traders, 
and  artisans,  down  even  to  porters,  severally  had  a 
warden  or  alderman  with  two  assistants  or  stewards 
and  with  two  searchers  or  inspectors;  while  the  com- 
ponent master-traders  or  burgesses  had  journeymen 
and  apprentices.  These  organized  bodies  were  under 
the  control  of  a  town-government,  originally  the 
Twelve  Keepers,  elected  by  the  burgesses  or  masters, 
and  these,  while  carrying  on  civic  business,  exercised 
authority  over  the  gild-members,  inflicting  fines  for 
various  offences  and  breaches  of  rules.  That  is  to 
say,  though  having  different  ends,  these  bodies  were 
analogous  to  our  modern  administrations  in  respect 
of  their  graduated  structure,  their  subjection  to  mu- 
nicipal government,  and  their  inspection  by  its  offi- 
cers. 

Not  content  with  undertaking  such  businesses  ;ts 
those  of  joint-stock  companies,  our  public  agencies, 


REGIMENTATION.  197 

general  and  local,  are  beginning  to  enter  upon  retail 
trading.  We  have  not  yet  gone  so  far  as  the  French, 
who  have  made  the  sale,  as  well  as  the  manufacture, 
of  tobacco  and  matches  and  gunpowder  into  State- 
monopolies,  and  who  have  State-establishments  for 
the  making  of  fine  porcelain  and  tapestries,  but  we 
are  taking  steps  in  the  same  direction.  Most  con- 
spicuous is  municipal  house-building.  Over  fifty 
years  ago,  and  again  in  1884,  I  pointed  out  that  such 
enterprise  is  self-defeating,  and  recently  Lord  Ave- 
bury  and  Lord  Rosebery  have  insisted  on  the  same 
truth.  But  the  public  are  now  set  upon  it,  and  can 
no  more  be  stopped  by  arguments  and  facts  than  a 
runaway  horse  can  be  stopped  by  pulling  the  reins. 
Other  trades  are  being  entered  upon.  The  Liverpool 
Corporation  sells  sterilized  milk  for  infants;  and,  ar- 
guing that  it  is  proper  to  guard  adults  as  well  as 
infants  from  typhoid  and  tuberculosis,  this  sale  of 
milk  may  be  made  general.  The  Corporation  of  Tun- 
bridge  Wells  is  carrying  on  the  business  of  hop-grow- 
ing— successfully,  the  town-clerk  says;  and  it  has  set 
up  a  telephone  system.  At  Torquay  municipal  farm- 
ing has  gone  to  the  extent  of  making  a  profit  from 
rabbits  on  its  2,200  acres  of  land,  and  feeding  sheep 
instead  of  letting  the  grass  to  outsiders.  Each  step 
renders  subsequent  steps  easier.  Some  three  years 
or  more  ago  a  deputation  to  the  London  County 
Council  advocated  a  system  of  municipal  bakeries; 


198  REGIMENTATION. 

and  there  are  signs  that  we  may  presently  have  in- 
toxicating liquors  sold  by  public  agency :  the  Gothen- 
burg system  and  the  vodka-monopoly  in  Russia  fur- 
nishing precedents.  When  Collectivism  has  strength- 
ened itself  enough,  there  may  come  municipal  gro- 
ceries, and  so  on  with  other  trades,  until  at  length 
manufacturers  and  distributors  are  formed  into  mul- 
titudinous departments,  each  with  its  head  and  its 
ranks  of  subordinates  and  workers — regiments  and 
brigades.  In  France,  beyond  the  fighting  army,  the 
army  of  civil  servants,  ever  increasing,  has  reached 
nearly  900,000,  and  when  all  our  businesses  have 
been  municipalized,  a  larger  number  will  have  been 
reached  here. 

Meanwhile  the  same  process  is  going  on  among 
artisans  and  others  united  into  trade-unions.  Made 
somewhat  different  from  one  another  by  adjustments 
to  different  occupations,  they  nevertheless  show  com- 
munity in  the  division  of  their  members  into  various 
ranks — master-workmen,  labourers,  apprentices.  As 
of  old  in  the  gilds,  there  is  a  narrow  limit  to  appren- 
ticeships, and  there  are  barriers  against  the  rising 
of  workers  of  a  lower  rank  into  those  of  a  higher. 
There  are  rigid  rules,  and  spies  to  detect  breaches 
of  them.  There  are  governing  committees  before 
which  transgressing  members  are  called,  and  by  which 
heavy  penalties  for  disobedience  are  imposed.  Be- 
yond these  there  are  the  penalties  of  expulsion  and 


REGIMENTATION.  199 

consequent  persecution  when  seeking  employment. 
The  local  groups  in  each  trade  are  subject  to  a  cen- 
tral body  partially  controlling  them;  and  there  have 
been  attempts  to  unite  all  the  trades.  So  that  the 
general  principles  of  regimentation  are  displayed 
throughout.  The  whole  organization  is  regarded  as 
the  workers'  army;  and  the  assertion  has  been  made 
that  in  the  conflict  with  masters  the  usages  of  war 
are  justifiable. 

Lastly  let  us  note  that  this  regimentation,  now 
conspicuous  in  private  organizations  as  in  public  ones, 
illustrates  the  concomitance  between  exercise  of  coer- 
cion and  submission  to  coercion.  The  men  who,  pur- 
suing what  they  think  their  trade-interests,  trample 
on  other  men's  freedom,  surrender  their  own  freedom 
while  doing  it.  The  members  of  a  trade-union  who 
assault  non-unionists  for  offering  to  work  on  lower 
terms  than  themselves,  thus  denying  their  liberty  of 
contract,  have  themselves  yielded  up  their  liberty  of 
contract  to  the  majority  of  their  fellows  and  its  gov- 
erning body.  While  relinquishing  their  own  rights 
to  make  the  best  of  their  own  powers,  they  prevent 
outsiders  from  exercising  similar  rights,  and  stigma- 
tize as  a  "  blackleg,"  that  is,  a  swindler,  the  man  who 
insists  on  making  his  own  bargains.  iN"ay,  they  do 
more.  Their  leaders  have  applauded  the  Boer  Gov- 
ernment because  it  "  protected  the  strikers  but  re- 
fused police  protection  for  '  blacklegs.'  "     Already 


200  REGIMENTATION. 

these  men  have  made  themselves  semi-slaves  to  their 
trade-combinations,  and  with  the  further  progress 
of  imperialism,  re-barbarization,  and  regimentation, 
their  semi-slavery  will  end  in  complete  slavery — a 
state  which  they  will  fully  deserve. 


WEATHER  FOEECASTS. 

"Ah,  it's  too  bright  to  last!  "  is  an  exclamation 
not  unfrequently  heard  on  a  fine  morning.  Ill-based 
as  are  many  common  beliefs  about  the  weather,  a  few 
are  well-based,  and  this  is  one  of  them:  little  as  those 
who  utter  it  understand  why. 

A  specially  fine  morning  is  nearly  always  the  end 
of  a  fine  night,  that  is,  a  night  throughout  all  or 
most  of  which  the  sky  has  been  free  from  clouds. 
During  such  a  night  the  Earth's  surface  radiates  its 
heat  into  space  without  impediment.  There  is  no 
canopy  of  opaque  vapour  floating  above,  which  radi- 
ates back  to  the  Earth  much  of  the  heat  which  it 
receives  from  it.  Hence,  during  the  early  part  of  the 
following  day,  before  the  sun  is  high,  a  low  tem- 
perature is  reached,  alike  by  the  exposed  parts  of  the 
ground  and  by  parts  clothed  with  vegetation,  as  is 
shown  by  the  large  deposits  of  dew.  The  chilled  sur- 
face is  now  a  good  condenser,  and  if  the  air  is  well 
charged  with  water,  as  commonly  it  is  when  the  wind 
is  westerly,  and  especially  southwesterly,  precipita- 
tion results :  clouds  begin  to  form  and  presently  there 
14  201 


202  WEATHER  FORECASTS. 

comes  rain.  If  the  air  is  not  much  charged  with 
water,  as  when  it  comes  from  the  east,  north-east,  or 
north,  the  probability  of  rain  is  much  less ;  but  there 
may  not  unlikely  ensue  a  cloudy  day.  By  way  of 
impressing  this  relation  of  facts  I  have  sometimes 
expressed  it  facetiously  thus: — When  the  Earth 
throws  off  its  blanket  at  night  it  takes  cold  and  cries 
in  the  morning. 

Thus  much  by  way  of  introduction.  Let  me  pass 
now  to  the  larger  topic  on  which  I  would  dilate — the 
relation  between  the  kind  of  weather  and  the  tem- 
perature of  the  Earth's  surface,  as  illustrated  in  some 
cases  permanently  and  in  other  cases  temporarily. 

Permanent  illustrations  we  have  first  of  all  in 
the  desert  of  Sahara  and  like  rainless  regions,  where 
the  temperature  of  the  surface  is  so  high  that  pre- 
cipitation is  prevented:  the  radiant  heat  dissipating 
all  arriving  clouds.  A  vicious  circle  is  established. 
Clouds  cannot  exist  over  the  hot  sand,  and  in  the  ab- 
sence of  rain  and  subsequent  evaporation  the  sand 
cannot  be  cooled.  A  converse  relation  of  phenomena 
is  seen  in  mountainous  regions.  Having  above  them 
smaller  depths  of  air,  elevated  surfaces  are  colder 
than  the  surfaces  of  valleys,  and,  being  colder,  bring 
down  water  more  readily.  By  storms,  and  by  subse- 
quent evaporation,  they  are  continually  chilled,  and 
therefore  tend  to  condense  more  rain,  or,  as  in  Alpine 
regions,  snow.     Here  we  have  a  vicious  circle  of  the 


WEATHER  FORECASTS.  203 

opposite  kind :  from  coldness  of  the  surface  come  fre- 
quent precipitations,  and  these  maintain  the  coldness 
of  the  surface. 

That  which  holds  permanently  in  these  extreme 
cases  must  hold  temporarily  in  less  extreme  cases — 
cases  in  which  the  surface,  made  in  one  way  or  other 
colder  or  warmer  than  usual,  produces  a  greater  or 
less  tendency  to  rain  than  usual :  a  cause  of  rain  which 
co-operates  with  other  causes  or  conflicts  with  them. 
For  the  last  twenty  years  I  have  occasionally  noted 
this  connexion  of  facts,  and  have  several  times  dis- 
cussed it  with  a  friend  who  is,  or  was,  concerned  with 
the  predictions  of  the  Meteorological  Office.  In  pur- 
suance of  our  discussions  I  wrote  to  him  from  Dorking 
on  July  20,  1888,  a  letter  from  which  the  following 
is  an  extract: — 

Certainly  two  years  ago — it  may  be  three — I  drew  your 
attention  to  the  temperature  of  the  Earth  as  extending  to 
a  certain  depth  below  the  surface,  as  a  factor  in  meteor- 
ology :  arguing  that  when  this  superficial  layer  is  colder  than 
usual,  it  is  a  more  efficient  condenser  and  conduces  to  rainy 
weather. 

You  did  not  think  anything  of  the  suggestion,  but  I  now 
draw  your  attention  to  our  recent  weather  in  illustration  of  my 
belief.  The  long  cold  spring,  continuing  on  into  summer,  has 
so  chilled  the  surface  of  the  country  that  now,  no  matter  what 
way  the  wind,  cloud  condenses  every  day  and  rain  comes: 
there  having  been  established,  as  in  all  such  cases,  a  vicious 
circle — cold  surface  produces  cloud,  cloud  prevents  the  warm- 
ing of  the  surface;  and  when  a  certain  stage  has  been  reached 
there  is  no  remedy  save  from  some  larger  cycle  of  changes  in- 
itiated elsewhere. 


204  WEATHER  FORECASTS. 

Then  on  March  8  of  the  next  year,  1889,  I  wrote 
again  as  follows: — 

When,  on  Wednesday  morning,  the  wind  changed  accord- 
ing to  forecast  to  S.  and  S.W.,  I  made  the  remark — "Now  we 
shall  most  likely  have  a  great  deal  of  rain,  as  the  southerly  and 
south-westerly  winds  will  have  to  pass  over  a  surface  which  has 
been  chilled  by  a  fortnight  of  frost  and  snow." 

Some  hours  afterwards  there  came  the  evening  paper  of 
Wednesday  in  which  there  was  the  following  forecast  for  the 
next  day  up  to  mid-day : — 

[the  extract  was  sent  and  is  missing]. 
So,  again,  the  next  morning  the  forecast  was: — 
[this  extract  too  was  sent]. 

Thus  it  appears  that  no  rain  was  anticipated  until  mid-day 
on  Thursday,  and  that  after  that  time  the  amount  of  rain  an- 
ticipated was  but  small. 

Now  the  facts  have  been  very  much  at  variance  with  these 
anticipations.  The  rain  commenced  12  hours  before  the  time 
when  it  was  anticipated,  viz.,  in  the  middle  of  the  night  on 
Wednesday,  and  here  it  has  rained  incessantly  for  more  than  30 
hours. 

Here,  then,  I  take  it  is  a  case  in  which  the  forecasts  are 
wrong  in  taking  no  account  of  the  temperature  of  the  surface 
over  which  the  wind  passes.  Last  summer,  as  I  pointed  out  to 
you,  exemplified  the  general  and  continued  effect  of  a  surface 
chilled  to  a  considerable  depth  by  the  long-continued  cold  and 
rain  of  the  spring;  and  this  case  exemplifies  the  special  and 
probably  temporary  effect  of  a  surface  greatly  chilled  but 
probably  to  a  small  depth. 

In  your  reply  last  autumn  you  implied  that  my  belief  was 
that  the  temperature  of  the  surface  was  the  chief  factor.  I 
never  said  any  such  thing  and  never  dreamed  any  such  thing. 
I  never  supposed  that  it  was  anything  like  a  chief  factor,  but 
merely  alleged  that  it  was  a  factor  which  should  be  taken  into 
account,  and  that  under  some  conditions  it  just  serves  tc  turn 
the  balance. 


WEATHER  FORECASTS.  205 

Before  these  dates  and  since,  I  have  noted  various 
facts  respecting  cloud-formation  which  serve  in  sun- 
dry ways  to  verify  the  belief  above  expressed.  Dur- 
ing one  of  the  many  autumn  visits  spent  with  my 
friends  at  Ardtornish  (a  new  house  at  the  head  of 
Loch  Aline,  to  which  they  gave  a  name  adopted  for 
the  adjacent  Ardtornish  Castle  on  the  Sound  of  Mull) 
I  one  day  observed  from  this  point  of  view,  looking 
along  the  two  and  a  half  miles  of  Loch  Aline  to  the 
Sound,  that  over  the  line  of  the  Sound  the  clouds 
were  thin.  Over  the  mountains  of  Mull  on  the  one 
side  and  the  highlands  of  Morven  on  the  other,  the 
clouds  were  dark,  that  is,  thick;  whereas  oyer  the 
water  of  the  Sound  separating  the  two,  the  canopy 
of  cloud  was  relatively  light:  the  fact  being,  I  pre- 
sume, that  the  water  in  the  Sound  radiated  more 
heat  than  did  the  surfaces  of  the  hills  on  either  side. 
A  different  kind  of  evidence  occurred  on  another 
occasion.  While  we  were  yachting  up  the  Slept 
Sound  there  came  into  view  the  island  of  Rum  with, 
its  three  mountain  peaks.  The  day  was  clear,  bui 
over  each  of  these  peaks,  some  two  or  three  hundred 
feet  it  may  be  above  it,  there  was  a  solitary  cloud., 
The  appearance  was  at  once  curious  and  instructive. 
Adjacency  to  the  cold  surface  of  each  peak,  which 
was  radiating  little  heat  into  space,  established  the 
conditions  leading  to  condensation  of  vapour  from  the 
warmer  air  which  drifted  over  the  spot.     More  re- 


206  WEATHER  FORECASTS. 

markable  in  appearance  than  the  common  cases  in 
which  a  cloud  continues  to  envelope  the  top  of  a 
mountain  notwithstanding  a  breeze  apparently  strong 
enough  to  blow  it  away,  were  these  three  cases  in 
which  a  cloud  was  detached  but  remained  seemingly 
stationary  above.  Evidently  the  explanation  in  such 
cases  is  that  the  cloud  is  not  really  stationary,  but 
that  while  on  the  leeward  side  the  portions  continu- 
ally drifted  away  are  forthwith  dissolved,  on  the 
windward  side  other  portions  are  formed  from  the 
wind  continually  arriving. 

Here,  in  the  South  of  England,  evidences  of  other 
kinds  have  from  time  to  time  -struck  me.  I  may 
name,  first,  two  instances  of  effects  the  converse  of 
that  described  in  the  above-quoted  letter  as  occurring 
in  1888,  when  a  cold  wet  spring  was  followed  by  a 
cold  wet  summer.  One  of  these  instances  was,  I 
think,  in  1893,  when  a  warm  and  very  dry  spring  was 
followed  by  a  summer  of  drought;  and  the  other  was 
this  year  (1901),  when,  though  to  a  less  marked  de- 
gree, a  like  sequence  happened:  both  of  these  cases 
tending  to  show  the  state  which  results  when  the  su- 
perficial layer  of  the  Earth  becomes  warmer  than 
usual.  While  spending  last  summer  (1900)  at  Bep- 
ton,  under  the  western  end  of  the  South  Downs,  I 
observed  several  examples  of  the  influence  which  the 
high  lands  behind  had  upon  the  formation  of  cloud. 
On  one  occasion,  at  some  height  above  the  tops  of 


WEATHER  FORECASTS.  207 

the  Downs,  there  extended  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach  a  canopy  of  cloud  of  the  nimbus  type.  This 
canopy  spread  some  distance  towards  the  north,  while 
further  to  the  north  there  was  a  summer  sky.  This 
year  (1901)  at  Petworth  I  observed  a  converse  phe- 
nomenon. The  weather  was  very  hot,  but  over  the 
comparatively  cool  surfaces  of  Blackdown  and  Hind 
Head  some  fleecy  clouds  had  been  formed.  Drifting 
southwards  these  presently  came  over  the  valley  of 
the  Pother  and  then  gradually  dissolved :  being  dissi- 
pated by  the  radiated  heat. 

But  the  most  striking  support  of  my  belief  I  have 
observed  in  the  space  between  Brighton  and  Port- 
slade.  From  the  beach  a  level  tract  extends  inland. 
On  each  occasion  there  was  fine  weather  to  seaward 
— a  summer  sky  with  a  few  drifting  clouds,  wafted 
by  a  gentle  south-west  breeze.  The  air  remained 
clear  for  some  distance  inland  from  the  shore,  but 
at  half  a  mile  off  or  thereabouts  there  began  to  con- 
dense, at  a  hundred  or  more  feet  above  the  surface, 
a  thin  veil  of  cloud.  This,  being  continually  drifted 
away,  thickened  as  it  passed  on,  while  a  new  portion 
of  the  thin  veil  was  formed  in  its  place,  until,  on 
looking  landwards,  one  saw  that  a  mile  or  two  to  the 
north  a  cloud-canopy  covered  the  country.  Two  facts 
were  here  conspicuous.  The  first  was  that  the  air 
was  made  to  condense  its  contained  water  by  passing 
over  a  surface  colder  than  that  which  it  had  previ- 


208  WEATHER  FORECASTS. 

ously  been  passing  over.  The  second  was  that  un- 
der conditions  like  those  exemplified,  a  very  slight 
difference  of  surface-temj)erature  might  presently 
produce  a  large  effect  by  shutting  out  the  source  of 
heat.  Clearly,  if  the  inland  tract  described  had  been 
a  little  warmer,  and  had  not  caused  the  condensation 
which  formed  a  cloud-canopy,  the  country  to  the 
north,  remaining  exposed  to  the  sun,  would  have  had 
no  tendency  to  form  cloud  and  precipitate  rain; 
whereas  the  canopy  of  cloud,  by  intercepting  the 
sun's  rays  and  keeping  the  surface  relatively  cold, 
made  more  probable  the  continuance  of  cloudy  and 
rainy  weather.  "When  forces  are  nearly  balanced  the 
addition  of  a  small  amount  to  one  or  the  other  may 
cause  a  great  and  continued  change. . 

It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  here  "  a  true  cause  " 
of  variations  in  weather.  The  only  question  is  to 
what  extent  it  qualifies  the  effects  of  larger  causes. 
It  is  undeniable  that  the  permanently  dry  regions  and 
the  permanently  wet  regions  exhibit  the  relation  al- 
leged, and  it  can  hardly  be  denied  that  between  these 
extreme  cases  there  must  be  multitudinous  grada- 
tions of  cases  in  which  minor  effects  are  produced. 
Whether  this  factor  can  be  so  taken  into  account 
as  appreciably  to  affect  forecasts  may  be  doubted. 
It  has  occurred  to  me,  however,  that  if  stations  were 
distributed  with  adequate  frequency  over  the  king- 
dom, each  of  which,  duly  fenced  while  duly  exposed, 


WEATHER  FORECASTS.  209 

contained  thermometers  the  bulbs  of  which  were  in- 
serted in  the  ground  to  several  depths,  say  three,  six, 
nine,  and  twelve  inches,  or  more,  it  would  be  possi- 
ble, by  comparing  the  records  of  temperatures  ex- 
tending over  years  and  over  months,  to  judge  whether 
there  would  be  an  increased  or  a  decreased  tendency 
to  the  rainy  weather,  or  the  fine  weather,  mainly 
brought  about  by  other  causes.  But  I  throw  this  out 
merely  as  a  suggestion. 


THE  EEGEESSIYE   MULTIPLICATION 
OF  CAUSES. 

An  ancestral  tree  is  a  familiar  object — familiar 
because  the  desire  to  trace  descent  from  some  note- 
worthy person  often  prompts  delineation  of  it.  But 
no  one  draws  up  a  converse  ancestral  tree — a  tree 
representing  all  the  ancestors  of  each  preceding  gen- 
eration, multiplying  as  they  recede:  the  four  grand- 
parents, the  eight  great-grandparents,  the  sixteen 
great-great-grandparents,  the  thirty-two,  &c;  nearly 
all  of  them  commonplace  or  obscure  persons,  descent 
from  whom  confers  no  distinction.  Habitually  ignor- 
ing the  fact  though  he  does,  everyone  is  aware  that 
of  those  men  and  women  who  form  his  own  converse 
ancestral  tree,  branching  and  re-branching  as  it  goes 
back  in  time,  each  gave  a  part  of  the  constitution 
now  possessed  by  him — each  was  a  cause  of  multitu- 
dinous traits,  most  of  them  hidden,  some  unobtrusive, 
and  a  few  conspicuous,  as  atavism  occasionally  proves. 
Though  equality  of  influence  cannot  be  alleged  of 
all  the  members  composing  each  receding  generation, 
yet  the  exercise  of  some  influence  is  undeniable.  No 
one's  nature  would  be  the  same  were  the  share  taken 
210 


THE  REGRESSIVE  MULTIPLICATION  OF  CAUSES.  211 

in  forming  it  by  any  ancestor  replaced  by  some  other; 
and  as  the  number  of  ancestors  in  each  receding  gen- 
eration becomes  greater,  checked  only  by  increasing 
coalescence  of  lines  of  ancestry,  we  see  that  the  re- 
gressive multiplication  of  causes  is  exemplified  in 
each  person. 

On  looking  into  the  matter  more  closely,  we  may 
observe  that  each  of  these  causes  was  itself  a  com- 
plex cause,  not  only  in  the  sense  that  each  ancestor 
wTas  an  involved  aggregate  of  structures  and  func- 
tions, but  in  the  sense  that  each  became  a  cause  only 
by  the  aid  of  numerous  co-operative  causes — inci- 
dents, conditions,  or  antecedents,  we  must  call  them; 
since  they  were  not  themselves  operative  forces,  but 
by  their  presence  or  absence  allowed  certain  other 
forces  to  operate.  If  a  certain  ancestor  and  ancestress 
had  been  of  different  creeds;  if  one  or  both  had  had 
no  property;  if  the  lady  had  not  recovered  from 
small-pox  without  bearing  marks;  if  illness  had  pre- 
vented one  of  them  from  attending  a  certain  social 
gathering,  or  the  other  had  been  called  away  by  busi- 
ness; or  if  some  more  attractive  man  had  not  been 
absent;  and  so  on,  and  so  on;  the  courtship  would 
not  have  been  initiated,  the  marriage  would  not  have 
taken  place,  and  there  would  not  have  been  the  child 
through  whom  the  descent  is  traced.  Moreover  it  is 
obvious  that  each  of  these  co-operative  antecedents 
itself  depended  on  various  other  antecedents;  so  that, 


212  THE  REGRESSIVE  MULTIPLICATION  OF  CAUSES. 

taking  into  account  the  innumerable  causes  implied 
by  the  innumerable  marriages,  there  were  practically 
infinite  numbers  of  antecedents,  every  one  of  which 
exercised  an  influence  over  the  result  as  seen  in  the 
now-existing  descendant. 

I  have  taken  first  this  regressive  multiplication 
of  causes  exhibited  in  the  organic  world,  as  being 
easy  to  follow.  I  pass  now  to  the  multitudinous  cases, 
less  easy  to  follow,  exhibited  by  the  inorganic  world; 
for,  commonly  ignoring  the  fact  though  we  do,  each 
inorganic  cause  has  an  ancestry  of  inorganic  causes, 
similarly  multiplying  as  it  recedes  in  time.  This 
sandy  beach  bounded  above  by  a- bank  of  stones,  af- 
fords good  illustrations.  A  rill  of  water  draining 
out  of  the  shingle  bank,  runs  over  the  sand,  cutting 
a  serpentine  course,  here  shallow  and  outspread  and 
there  undercutting  one  side  of  its  narrower  channel. 
A  pebble  lying  above  the  undermined  side  has  fallen 
in.  Look  a  little  higher  up,  and  you  see  that  this 
minute  streamlet  has  been  deflected  towards  the  un- 
dermined side  by  a  large  irregular  boulder,  the  shape 
of  which  determined  the  course  of  the  water.  If  you 
inquire  for  their  antecedents  you  see  that  the  irregu- 
larities of  the  boulder,  due  first  to  its  heterogeneous 
composition,  imply  an  infinity  of  processes  that  went 
on  in  geologic  times,  and  also  recall  those  actions  of 
the  breakers  which  have  since  rounded  its  prominent 
parts.    Pursuing  back  a  further  line  of  causation  you 


THE  REGRESSIVE  MULTIPLICATION  OF  CAUSES.  213 

are  shown  that  this  boulder  rolled  down  to  its  present 
place  from  the  top  edge  of  the  shingle-bank,  where 
it  had  been  landed  by  a  breaker  at  the  last  tide ;  and 
you  are  introduced  to  the  countless  causes  which 
brought  that  boulder  to  the  needful  preceding  place 
and  to  the  forces  which  shaped  the  breaker  that 
lodged  it  in  its  position:  in  both  cases  innumerable 
energies  co-operating.  Yet  another  retrogression 
brings  you  to  that  vibration  produced  in  the  adjacent 
road  by  a  passing  waggon,  which  shook  the  boulder 
from  its  place;  then  you  have  the  complex  group  of 
antecedents  implied  by  passage  of  the  waggon;  and 
so  on  perpetually.  Thus  is  it  with  each  of  the  appar- 
ently simple  causes  we  see  in  operation.  Always  it  is 
a  composite  cause;  and  each  of  the  causes  composing 
it  is  a  composite  cause.  Shooting  over  a  ledge  of 
rock  a  small  waterfall  exhibits  a  force  which  seems 
one  and  homogeneous — a  cause  of  change  which  we 
think  of  as  simple.  But  if  we  trace  back  the  stream 
we  find  that  in  it  are  united  numerous  streamlets, 
each  of  which  is  formed  of  many  rills  that  severally 
drain  away  the  water  from  surrounding  herbage,  and 
also  convey  the  products  of  springs.  A  further  re- 
cession brings  us  to  the  storms  and  the  showers  oc- 
curring at  intervals,  each^  presenting  innumerable 
gravitating  rain-drops.  These,  again,  descend  from 
clouds  which  have  been  drifting  and  eddying  on  their 
way  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard;  and  a  thousand  or 


214  THE  REGRESSIVE  MULTIPLICATION  OF  CAUSES. 

more  miles  off  the  molecules  forming  these  clouds 
were  evaporated  from  ocean-surfaces  too  wide  and 
various  to  conceive.  So  that  the  forces  exercised  by 
the  mass  of  molecules  in  the  waterfall  have  had  ante- 
cedents branching  and  re-branching  to  an  unimagina- 
ble degree  as  they  are  traced  back. 

When  studying  the  cosmic  process  we  are  prone 
to  look  in  advance.  We  watch  the  changes  now  tak- 
ing place  and  think  of  those  which  will  presently  take 
place.  When  contemplating  a  force  tacitly  assumed 
to  be  simple,  we  observe  how,  falling  on  any  aggre- 
gate, the  effects  it  produces  are  perpetually  multi- 
plied, how  there  go  on  corresponding  differentiations 
of  structure,  while  the  original  force  and  its  derived 
forces  are  themselves  differentiated;  and  we  observe 
how,  under  certain  conditions,  there  go  on  integra- 
tions of  structure  and  corresponding  integrations  of 
forces.  But  rightly  to  conceive  the  cosmic  process 
we  must  give  equal  attention  to  the  fact  that  through- 
out the  past  there  have  been  perpetual  differentia- 
tions of  matters  and  of  forces,  and  that  under  some 
conditions  there  have  been  perpetual  integrations  of 
matters  and  of  forces:  the  result  being  that  the  fac- 
tors of  the  cosmic  process  immediately  within  our 
ken,  have  histories  in  the  past  approximately  as  com- 
plex as  are  the  histories  which  will  result  from  thorn 
in  the  future.  Continually  in  our  analyses  and  syn- 
theses we  begin  with  Here  and  Now;  whereas  in  the 


THE  REGRESSIVE  MULTIPLICATION  OF  CAUSES.  215 

totality  of  things  there  is  no  Here  and  no  Now,  but 
only  a  momentary  aspect  of  a  transformation  which, 
though  in  the  course  of  immeasurable  time  becoming 
more  involved,  is  approximately  as  involved  in  the 
immediate  past  as  it  will  be  in  the  immediate  future 
— in  the  totality  of  things  I  say,  because  in  things 
taken  separately  it  is  otherwise.  I  Hence- we  have  to 
regard  each  cause  we  see  in  operation  as  resulting 
from  an  integration  of  causes,  or  rather  of  forces, 
conditions,  antecedents,  becoming  more  complex  with 
each  step  of  retrogression,  carrying  us  back  to  an 
infinite  complexity. 

To  many  readers  it  will  be  manifest  that  the  fore- 
going paragraphs,  duly  elaborated,  should  have 
formed  a  chapter  in  First  Principles.  More  than  a 
year  ago  I  issued  the  sixth  edition  of  that  work,  re- 
vised up  to  date :  conceiving  it  then,  as  I  conceive  it 
now,  to  be  the  final  edition;  for  it  is  not  likely  that 
the  whole  of  it  will  be  sold  before  my  death.  Thus 
no  opportunity  is  likely  to  occur  for  incorporating 
what  I  have  recently  discovered  should  have  been 
set  forth  as  part  of  the  general  doctrine  contained 
in  that  work;  and  I  have  therefore  no  alternative 
but  to  include  a  brief  exposition  of  it  in  this  mis- 
cellaneous volume. 


SANITATION  IN  THEOEY  AND 
PKACTICE. 

After  lying  unused  for  nearly  fifty  years,  an 
almost  forgotten  incident  will  serve  to  introduce 
some  comments  on  the  doings  of  our  guardians  of 
the  public  health.  It  occurred  at  a  little  dinner  given 
by  a  friend,  long  since  deceased  without  leaving  de- 
scendants, Mr.  F.  O.  Ward,  active  in  the  sanitary 
agitation  then  carried  on,  and,  I  believe,  a  writer  of 
occasional  leaders  on  water-supply  and  other  such 
matters  in  The  Times.  He  was  an  enthusiast  and 
soon  found  occasion  to  bring  up  his  favourite  topic. 
The  form  his  talk  took  was  an  unstinted  laudation 
of  his  friend  Edwin  Chadwick,  the  leader  of  the  move- 
ment; and  the  particular  trait  singled  out  for  praise 
was  his  perseverance  in  carrying  out  vast  investiga- 
tions. One  illustration  given  was  that  if  he  needed 
proof  of  some  point  in  his  case,  he  instructed  a  man 
to  examine  and  report,  and  if  the  man  did  not  bring 
back  the  evidence  he  desired,  he  sent  him  about  his 
business  and  dispatched  another;  meting  out  like 
measure  to  him  too,  if  he  failed  to  furnish  state- 
ments of  the  required  kind;  and  so  on,  and  so  on, 
216 


SANITATION  IN  THEORY  AND   PRACTICE.     217 

until  he  got  the  proof  he  wanted.  All  this  was  said 
with  apparent  unconsciousness  of  the  damaging  im- 
plications respecting  Blue  Books — the  disclosure  of 
the  way  in  which  a  strong  case  is  made  out  by  omit- 
ting facts  which  do  not  support  the  foregone  con- 
clusion. Twice  since  that  time  I  have  had  occasion 
to  look  into  these  masses  of  officially-collected  evi- 
dence, and  in  both  cases  have  seen  how  the  bias  of 
those  concerned  has  vitiated  the  conclusions  drawn. 
Among  those  now  living  few  remember  how,  in 
the  early  fifties  there  was  widely  disseminated  the 
idea,  naturally  arising  and  readily  accepted,  that 
fevers  of  one  or  other  kind  are  produced  by  noisome 
odours — stinks  and  stenches.  What  proposition 
seemed  more  reasonable  than  that  the  repulsive 
smells  arising  from  decomposing  matter  carried  with 
them  the  germs  of  diseases,  or  else  that  the  smells 
themselves  were  the  causes  of  diseases?  Slums  and 
their  surroundings,  where  epidemics  arose,  were 
commonly  characterized  by  malodours  proceeding 
from  dirt,  from  refuse-heaps,  and  from  obstructed 
drains.  Was  not  the  explanation  obvious?  After 
the  usual  style  of  reasoning,  which  proceeds  by  the 
method  of  agreement  unchecked  by  the  method  of 
difference,  it  was  concluded  that  as  these  two  things- 
habitually  went  together,  the  one  was  the  cause  of 
the  other.     It  was  not  asked  whether  these  places 

where  disease  was  rife  were  not  also  places  inhabited 
15 


218     SANITATION  IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE. 

by  people  leading  unhealthy  lives — drunkards,  pros- 
titutes, beggars,  and  half-starved  men  and  women, 
who  were,  in  consequence  of  their  modes  of  life, 
their  bad  feeding  and  over-crowding,  on  the  high- 
way to  death.  It  was  not  asked  whether  the  dis- 
eases were  not  due  to  these  causes  rather  than  to 
the  smells.  The  verdicts  of  the  nostrils  were  wil- 
lingly assumed  to  be  verified  by  statistics. 

And  yet  the  counter-evidence  was  overwhelming. 
In  every  village  throughout  the  kingdom,  each  of 
the  half-dozen  farms,  by  its  yard  full  of  manure,  by 
its  cow-sheds,  and  by  its  stables,  severally  reeking 
with  the  gases  from  decomposing  matter,  furnished 
a  contradiction  to  the  belief  that  ordinary  unpleas- 
ant odours  are  pernicious.  Places  which,  according 
to  current  sanitary  doctrines,  ought  to  be  centres  of 
disease,  prove  to  be  quite  healthful — so  healthful, 
indeed,  that  invalids  frequently  take  lodgings  in 
farm-houses  where  they  are  exposed  to  these  prod- 
ucts of  decaying  excreta.  ~Nor  need  we  go  to  the 
country  for  disproofs.  They  are  supplied  by  all  the 
stables  in  great  towns — stables  in  which  grooms, 
ostlers^  and  others,  spend  great  parts  of  their  lives, 
and  over  which  in  many  cases  families  reside.  Nay, 
London  affords  a  still  more  conspicuous  contradic- 
tion. Throughout  the  hottest  months  of  the  year 
the  horse-dung  scattered  over  the  streets  is  perpetu- 
ally ground  down  by  carriage  wheels,  occasionally 


SANITATION  IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE.     219 

sprinkled  by  water-carts,  and  shone  on  by  the  July 
or  August  sun:  the  disgusting  odour  emitted  in  hot 
weather  yielding  ample  proof  of  the  decomposition 
taking  place  in  every  thoroughfare.  What  is  the 
result?  Xone,  so  far  as  the  Bills  of  Mortality  tell 
us.  The  deaths  per  thousand  are  not  higher  in  num- 
ber at  that  time  than  at  other  times,  and  are,  indeed, 
occasionally  lower  than  at  this  salubrious  place, 
Brighton.  Once  more,  personal  observation  has 
supplied  me  wTith  a  yet  more  striking  disproof  of  the 
notion  that  was  established  by  garbled  evidence  in 
past  years.  Visits  frequently  paid  in  the  autumn 
to  certain  delightful  friends,  who  at  that  season 
migrate  from  London  to  their  estate  on  the  western 
coast  of  Scotland,  repeatedly  obliged  me  to  go  by 
steamer  down  the  Clyde,  sometimes  in  July  some- 
times in  August;  and  on  more  occasions  than  one  I 
have  been  compelled,  during  part  of  the  passage  be- 
tween Glasgow  and  Greenock,  to  hold  my  handker- 
chief to  my  nose  so  as  to  minimize  my  perception  of 
the  abominable  smell  given  off  from  the  drainage 
of  Glasgow  poured  into  the  river.  Xow  all  along 
its  banks  are  ship-yards  where  thousands  of  men  saw 
and  hammer  all  day  long,  and  had  this  stench  been 
the  fever-breeding  agent  which  we  are  led  to  sup- 
pose, these  men  ought  to  have  been  swept  away 
wholesale.  Yet  there  were  no  statements  of  un- 
usual mortality  among  them. 


220     SANITATION  IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE. 

But  now,  accepting  for  a  moment  these  doctrines 
which  we  have  been  industriously  taught,  let  us  see 
what  have  been  the  measures  taken  in  pursuance  of 
them.  It  was  found  that  ordinary  soil  is  a  good  dis- 
infectant, and  that  effete  matters  mixed  with  it, 
while  having  their  disagreeable  odours  destroyed, 
increase  its  fertility.  What  was  the  inference? 
Evidently  that  if  sewage  was  properly  distributed 
over  areas  of  land,  it  would  lose  that  disease-produc- 
ing quality  associated  with  its  noisomeness,  at  the 
same  time  that  the  crops  would  be  increased.  Sew- 
age farms  resulted  from  this  inference.  It  was  for- 
gotten that  the  disinfecting  power  of  soil  is  de- 
pendent on  its  ability  to  absorb  the  matters  mixed 
with  it  or  poured  over  it,  and  that  as  soon  as  it  be- 
comes saturated  it  loses  its  disinfecting  power.  This 
conclusion,  obvious  one  would  have  thought  even  to 
the  uninstructed,  was  not  drawn  by  those  in  author- 
ity. The  result  was  that  the  irrigated  lands  became 
widespread  sources  of  these  gases  we  have  been 
taught  to  dread.  Along  with  cases  of  which  I  have 
read,  one  case  has  come  under  my  personal  notice. 
Friends  of  mine  living  some  four  miles  from  a  sew- 
age farm,  were  so  much  annoyed  by  the  repulsive 
odours  frequently  wafted  from  it,  that  they  had 
thoughts  of  leaving  their  house.  Of  course  the  nui- 
sance suffered  by  them  was  suffered  still  more  by 
hosts  of  people  in  nearer  places,  according  as  the 


SANITATION  IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE.     221 

wind  brought  the  foul  gas  over  them  or  carried  it 
elsewhere.  And  this  wide  diffusion  of  noisome 
effluvia,  said  in  other  cases  to  be  productive  of  dis- 
ease, went  on  until  the  town  of  Burton  had  to  spend 
a  large  sum  in  partially  deodorizing  the  sewage  be- 
fore distributing  it. 

But  now  observe  what  have  simultaneously  been 
the  measures  taken  in  towns  to  exclude  the  mischiefs 
ascribed  to  foul  gases.  The  ventilation  of  sewers 
has  been  insisted  upon  as  a  needful  prophylactic, 
and  nowadays  one  sees  galvanized  iron  pipes,  dis- 
figuring the  sides  of  buildings,  arranged  for  carrying 
away  those  products  of  decomposition  which,  by  the 
sewage-farms,  are  spread  abroad  for  people  to 
breathe.  That  which,  in  small  quantity,  is  injuri- 
ous in  the  one  place  is,  in  large  quantity,  innocuous 
in  the  other!  Nay,  this  is  not  all.  Where  altera- 
tions in  the  drainage  of  houses  are  made,  and  where, 
by  consequence,  certain  old  drains  are  cut  off  as 
useless,  it  is  common  to  require  that  these  shall  be 
destroyed.  Though  very  shortly  there  will  be  noth- 
ing left  in  them  to  decompose,  and  though,  during 
the  interval,  any  escaping  gas  must  pass  through  six, 
eight,  or  more  feet  of  that  soil  said  to  be  so  effective 
as  a  disinfectant,  they  must  be  made  away  with! 
Truly  the  ancient  figure  of  straining  at  a  gnat  and 
swallowing  a  camel  is  utterly  inadequate  to  express 
the  folly  of  these  proceedings. 


222     SANITATION  IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE. 

How  is  it  that  beliefs  so  conspicuously  fallacious 
have  been  established  and  are  maintained  by  cen- 
tral and  local  authorities  and  their  employes?  There 
has  developed  a  bureaucracy  which  has  an  interest  in 
keeping  up  these  delusions;  and  the  members  of 
which,  individually,  have  interests  in  insisting  upon 
these  needless  expenditures.  Every  organized  body 
of  men  tends  to  grow,  and  tends  to  magnify  its  own 
importance.  For  the  last  half-century  the  military 
class  has  been  raising  an  outcry  about  our  defence- 
lessness,  notwithstanding  successive  additions  to  the 
army.  Continually  there  have  been  urgent  de- 
mands from  admirals  and  captains  that  our  navy 
shall  be  increased;  and  when  it  has  been  increased 
there  have  been  demands  for  further  increases. 
Similarly  with  the  State-Church.  Under  the  plea 
of  "  spiritual  destitution "  the  erection  of  more 
churches  has  been  urged  by  unbeneficed  clergy,  and 
then  incomes  for  incumbents  have  been  asked.  And 
under  kindred  influences  the  sanitary  class,  which 
has  grown  up  since  Chadwick's  day,  ever  exaggerates 
the  evils  to  be  dealt  with  while  tacitly  exalting  its 
own  members.  A  surveyor  employed  by  a  public 
body  has  to  prove  himself  a  vigilant  man,  and  he 
does  this  by  finding  fault  wherever  there  is  a  possi- 
ble occasion — has,  in  fact,  no  other  way  of  getting  a 
reputation.  So,  too,  if  an  in-coming  tenant  engages 
a  surveyor,  he  chooses  one  recommended  as  experi- 


SANITATION  IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE.     223 

enced  and  careful,  and  one  having  this  character  has 
obtained  it  by  exaggerating  defects  and  insisting  on 
needless  changes.  A  man  who  frequently  reports 
that  nothing  needs  doing  is  looked  at  sceptically,  as  a 
doctor  is  looked  at  when  he  prescribes  no  medicine. 

Yet  another  cause  co-operates.  New  sanitary 
appliances  are  continually  being  devised,  sanctioned 
by  authority,  and  required  by  surveyors;  and  sur- 
veyors may  have,  and  certainly  sometimes  do  have, 
personal  interests  in  pushing  the  use  of  them:  either 
as  being  shareholders  in  the  companies  they  are 
manufactured  by,  or  as  receiving  percentages  on  the 
numbers  sold  through  their  recommendation.  In 
these  days  when  illegitimate  commissions  are  being 
disclosed,  it  is  folly  to  suppose  that  here,  where 
there  is  an  obvious  method  of  obtaining  secret 
profits,  it  will  not  be  used. 

"But  what  does  it  matter?"  will  be  exclaimed 
by  some  random  readers.  "  It  simply  entails  extra 
costs  on  landlords  or  on  classes  of  tenants  who  can 
well  bear  them."  Here  is  a  sample  of  those  vicious 
ways  of  thinking  common  in  social  affairs.  As  far 
back  as  1850  I  pointed  out  the  evils  entailed  by 
artificially  raising  the  costs  of  houses,  and  since  then 
(see  The  Man  versus  The  State,  pp.  51-5)  I  have 
given  definite  proof  that  the  multiplication  of  sani- 
tary requirements  often  arrests  the  building  of  small 
houses. 


224     SANITATION  IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE. 

And  then  comes  a  further  mischief.  As  a  se- 
quence of  this  law-made  deficiency  of  house-accom- 
modation, there  has  been  growing  louder  a  com- 
plaint about  the  "  houseless  poor,"  with  frequent 
newspaper  articles  on  "The  Housing  Problem"; 
tacitly  assuming  that  it  is  a  public  business  to  supply 
people  with  fit  abodes.  For  equally  valid  reasons 
there  may  by-and-by  be  agitated  the  "  food  prob- 
lem," and  then  the  "  clothing  problem  ";  whereupon 
socialism  will  be  achieved. 


GYMNASTICS. 

Some  year  or  two  ago,  in  Harper's  Magazine 
(unfortunately  I  did  not  note  the  date)  I  read  the 
judgment  of  an  expert  which  confirmed  that  ill- 
opinion  of  gymnastics  I  have  long  entertained.  It 
was  contained  in  an  essay  entitled  "  Non-Hygienic 
Gymnastics,"  by  Mr.  Richard  Buckham,  who  quoted 
as  follows  from  "  a  well-known  teacher  of  physical 
development  "  in  New  York: — 

11 1  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  our  systems  of  athletic 
training,  at  least  the  most  of  those  now  in  vogue,  are  not  only 
vicious  in  principle,  but  tend  to  break  down  the  system,  shorten 
life,  and  generally  do  more  harm  than  good.  I  have  made  a 
study  of  the  subject  for  many  years,  and  I  long  ago  began  to 
inquire  why  it  is  that  so-called  athletes  usually  die  young,  or 
are  not  nearly  so  vigorous  at  forty-five  or  fifty  as  the  man  who 
has  rigorously  neglected  any  sort  of  training,  and  perhaps  even 
exercise.  That  such  is  the  fact  there  is  no  room  for  doubt. 
Athletes  do  die  young.  I  do  not  mean  by  all  this  that  I  do  not 
regard  athletic  sport  of  various  kinds  as  healthy  and  valuable. 
On  the  contrary,  I  do,  just  as  long  as  they  are  pleasurable,  and 
are  play  and  not  work.  But  when  your  young  athlete  begins 
to  train  for  a  rowing  contest  or  for  the  football  team,  or  for 
anything  like  that,  he  is  going  to  an  excess,  and  that  is  just  as 
bad  as  excess  in  any  other  way — in  business,  in  mental  labor, 
or  in  anything  else.  And  the  chances  are  that  he  will  exhaust 
his  system,  come  out  with  a  weak  heart  or  some  other  trouble, 
and  be  physically  damaged  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.    What 

225 


226  GYMNASTICS. 

the  man  of  to-day  needs  most  is  not  athletics  in  a  gymnasium, 
but  plenty  of  fresh  air  in  his  lungs.  Instead  of  a  quantity  of 
violent  exercise  that  leaves  him  weak  for  several  hours  after- 
ward, he  needs  to  learn  to  breathe  right,  stand  right,  and  sit 
right." 

Belief  in  the  virtues  of  gymnastics,  widespread 
and  indeed  almost  universal,  embodies  several  grave 
errors.  The  first  to  be  here  commented  upon  is  the 
identification  of  muscular  strength  with  constitu- 
tional strength.  It  is  assumed  that  one  who  can 
lift  great  weights,  jump  great  heights,  or  run  great 
distances,  is  proved  by  these  abilities  to  be  fitted  for 
withstanding  the  strains  of  life — doing  hard  work, 
bearing  unfavourable  conditions,  and  so  on.  The 
inference  is  erroneous.  Darwin  described  the 
dwarfish  Fuegians  as  being  so  degraded  in  appear- 
ance as  scarcely  to  look  like  human  beings;  and  yet 
he  tells  us  that  they  could  with  impunity  let  the 
snow  fall  and  melt  upon  their  naked  skins.  A  dis- 
turbance of  the  constitutional  balance  which  would 
be  fatal  to  a  European  was  to  them  innocuous.  Sim- 
ilarly with  animals.  It  is  recognized  by  breeders 
that  the  small  unimproved  French  breeds  are  more 
hardy  than  the  large  improved  English  breeds. 
Muscularity  and  the  putting  out  of  great  mechanic  al 
force,  are  no  measures  of  strength  in  that  sense  of 
the  word  which  chiefly  concerns  men.  Such  power 
of  limb  as  results  from  the  daily  activities  of  boy- 
hood— say  the  ability,  even  in  early  youth,  to  walk 


GYMNASTICS.  227 

more  than  forty  miles  in  a  day  (I  speak  from  per- 
sonal experience) — is  quite  enough  in  preparation 
for  the  contingencies  of  ordinary  life,  and  of  life 
deviating  a  good  deal  from  the  ordinary. 

Not  only  is  there  error  in  assuming  that  increase 
of  muscular  power  and  increase  of  general  vigour 
necessarily  go  together,  but  there  is  error  in  assum- 
ing that  the  reverse  connexion  cannot  hold.  It  is 
taken  for  granted  that  general  vigour,  if  not  in- 
creased, is  at  any  rate  not  decreased.  But  this  is 
untrue.  There  are  obvious  physiological  reasons 
for  the  injurious  results  testified  to  by  the  expert 
quoted  above.  The  current  belief  takes  no  account 
of  cost.  It  is  supposed  that  certain  sets  of  muscles 
can  be  greatly  developed  without  the  system  at  large 
being  so  taxed  as  to  cause  mischief.  But  when  it  is 
remembered  that  the  alimentary  organs  have  but 
a  limited  ability,  and  that  the  blood  they  furnish 
has  to  serve  for  all  purposes,  it  will  be  understood 
that  you  cannot  greatly  develop  certain  large  ex- 
ternal parts  without  appreciably  drawing  upon  the 
supplies  needed  for  repair  and  growth  of  other  ex- 
ternal parts,  and  also  of  those  internal  parts  which 
carry  on  the  life;  and  that  therefore  the  abnormal 
powers  acquired  by  gymnasts  may  be  at  the  cost  of 
constitutional  deterioration. 

There  has  to  be  added  the  further  great  mistake 
that  it  matters  not  whether  exercise  is  pleasurable 


228  GYMNASTICS. 

or  otherwise.  The  current  conception  is  that,  given 
a  certain  amount  of  muscular  activity  gone  through, 
the  beneficial  effect  is  the  same  if,  instead  of  an 
accompanying  gratification,  there  is  an  accompany- 
ing indifference,  or  even  that  partial  pain  which 
great  strain  implies.  Again  we  meet  with  a  physio- 
logical blunder.  Every  medical  man  has  daily  proof 
that  an  agreeable  state  of  feeling  goes  a  long  way 
towards  curing  illness;  and  there  is  scarcely  a  house- 
hold in  which  all  members  have  not  from  time 
to  time  seen  illustrations  of  this  truth.  Yet  there 
seems  a  refusal  to  draw  the  inference  that  if  pleas- 
ure is  beneficial  to  an  invalid,  so  also  is  it  to  a  per- 
son in  health.  In  him  the  effect  is  not  conspicuous, 
but  it  is  there.  As  certain  as  it  is  that  a  country 
walk  through  fine  scenery  is  more  invigorating  than 
an  equal  number  of  steps  up  and  down  a  hall;  so 
certain  is  it  that  the  muscular  activity  of  a  game, 
accompanied  by  the  ordinary  exhilaration,  invigor- 
ates more  than  the  same  amount  of  muscular  ac- 
tivity in  the  shape  of  gymnastics. 

Underneath  these  errors  lies  the  vicious  concep- 
tion which  pervades  the  thoughts  of  teachers  at 
large.  Culture,  no  matter  of  what  kind,  must  take 
the  shape  of  tasks.  In  the  minds  of  most  people 
education  and  pleasure  are  mutually  exclusive  ideas. 
Disagreeable  strain  is  regarded  as  necessarily  accom- 
panying mental  development;  and  we  here  see  that 


GYMNASTICS.  229 

the  same  connexion  of  thoughts  is  extended  to  bodily 
development:  this  must  be  achieved  by  the  disa- 
greeable muscular  strains  constituting  gymnastics. 
Moreover,  throughout  we  are  shown  the  ingrained 
faith  in  coercion.  Pupil  and  master  are  correla- 
tives; and  the  master  is  conceived  as  one  who  exer- 
cises such  force  as  he  deems  needful.  Nowadays 
the  coercive  relation,  once  marked  enough,  is  fading ; 
but  the  dominant  idea  in  the  pupil's  mind  continues 
to  be  fulfilment  of  the  master's  will,  rather  than  ac- 
quisition of  knowledge  and  mental  power.  And  if 
in  the  bodily  culture  known  as  gymnastics,  the  mas- 
tery of  the  instructor  is  no  longer  conspicuous  (save 
in  Germany),  yet  here  also  there  survives  the 
thought  of  fulfilling  requirements  and  of  subjection 
to  the  demands  of  the  system. 

Alike  among  early  civilized  races  and  among  bar- 
barians, war  originated  gymnastics;  and  the  theory 
and  practice  of  gymnastics  have  all  along  remained 
congruous  with  the  militant  type  of  society:  witness 
the  present  state  of  Germany.  The  endurance  of 
painful  efforts  and  the  disregard  of  pleasure,  have 
had  their  appropriateness  to  social  states  in  which 
bodily  prowess  was  of  chief  importance ;  and  a  phys- 
ical discipline,  pushed  even  to  the  extent  of  an  ear- 
lier break-up  of  the  constitution,  was  not  without  a 
good  political  defence.  But  with  the  advance  to- 
wards a  peaceful  state  of  society,  the  need  for  mak- 


230  GYMNASTICS. 

ing  strength  of  limb  a  chief  qualification  in  the  citi- 
zen diminishes,  and  along  with  its  diminution,  co- 
ercive and  ascetic  culture  loses  its  fitness.  In  place 
of  artificial  appliances  for  bodily  development  come 
the  natural  appliances  furnished  by  games  and  spon- 
taneous exercises. 


EUTHANASIA. 

Through  many  years,  personal  experiences  have 
drawn  my  attention  to  the  effect  of  attitude  on  the 
cerebral  circulation,  and  something  like  a  decade  ago 
my  thoughts  passed  from  the  effect  of  attitude  to 
the  effect  of  motion.  It  occurred  to  me  that  by  cen- 
trifugal force  the  cerebral  circulation  might  easily 
be  regulated:  now  increase  in  the  supply  of  blood 
to  the  brain  being  produced  and  now  decrease.  Sup- 
posing the  patient  to  be  placed  with  his  head  in  the 
centre  of  a  table  capable  of  being  made  to  revolve 
on  its  axis,  a  moderate  speed  of  rotation  would  cause 
abstraction  of  blood  from  the  head  and  determina- 
tion of  it  towards  the  feet;  while,  contrariwise,  if 
his  feet  were  placed  in  the  centre  and  his  head  at 
the  circumference,  his  head  would  become  congested. 
Of  course  I  saw  at  once  that  such  proceedings  would 
be  extremely  dangerous.  But  it  was  manifest  that 
by  modified  arrangements  dangers  might  be  avoided. 
If  the  patient  were  placed  not  radially  but  in  a  trans- 
verse position,  then  the  relative  distances  of  the  head 
and  feet  from  the  centre  might  be  so  adjusted  as  to 

231 


232  EUTHANASIA. 

have  any  degree  of  inequality.  In  that  case  rotation 
would  produce  any  desired  amount  of  effect  on  the 
circulation  through  the  brain. 

My  idea  did  not  go  beyond  the  stage  of  specula- 
tion, for  it  was  obvious  that  the  required  appliances 
would  be  expensive  and  would  require  a  large  room 
to  themselves,  so  that  the  experiment  could  not  be 
tried  in  my  own  house.  Presently  I  reverted  to  the 
idea  in  its  first  form-^-head  in  the  centre  and  feet  at 
the  periphery;  and  it  occurred  to  me  that  the  fatal 
result  quickly  entailed  on  a  patient  so  placed,  even 
when  the  velocity  of  rotation  was  moderate,  was  a 
fatal  result  which  might  intentionally  be  produced 
where  the  death-penalty  had  been  pronounced.  Sup- 
posing the  sentiment  of  revenge  to  be  excluded,  and 
supposing  it  decided  that  criminals  of  an  extremely 
degraded  type  may  best  be  put  out  of  existence,  there 
would  thus  be  provided  for  them  a  simple  means  of 
euthanasia.  The  effects  of  rotation  would  be  first 
faintness,  and  then  insensibility — an  insensibility 
soon  made  permanent  if  rotation  was  continued. 
For  when,  after  a  few  revolutions  at  considerable 
speed,  the  brain  had  been  emptied  of  blood,  as  well 
as  the  ascending  aorta  and  in  large  measure  the 
heart,  cessation  could  not  be  followed  by  a  back-flow 
from  the  lower  parts  of  the  body  sufficient  to  re-es- 
tablish the  actions  of  the  organs  thus  thrown  out  of 
gear;   and,  unquestionably,  continuance  of  rotation 


EUTHANASIA.  233 

for  some  time  would  make  revival  altogether  impos- 
sible. 

For  a  while  I  entertained  the  thought  of  having 
the  experiment  tried  at  the  Home  for  Lost  Dogs, 
where  I  believe  that  ownerless  and  worthless  dogs 
are  made  away  with  by  some  anaesthetic.  My 
scheme,  as  modified  for  this  experiment,  was  not  that 
of  a  rotating  table,  but  that  of  two  radially-placed 
wings  on  opposite  sides  of  a  vertical  rotating  axis; 
each  being  trough-shaped,  the  one  to  contain  the  vic- 
tim and  the  other  to  contain  such  weights  as  balanced 
it,  so  as  to  prevent  that  irregularity  of  motion  which 
arises  when  the  masses  of  matter  on  opposite  sides 
of  an  axis  of  rotation  are  not  in  equilibrium.  But  to 
seek  out  the  drawing  instruments  of  my  engineering 
days,  and  make  the  requisite  design  and  working 
drawings,  and  afterwards  to  superintend  the  arti- 
sans, threatened  to  be  too  serious  a  business.  Sus- 
pension of  more  important  work  would  have  been 
needful,  for  I  had  no  longer  energy  enough  to  carry 
on  the  two  at  once.     Hence  the  idea  dropped. 

I  name  it  here  in  the  hope  that  some  one  with 
adequate  time  and  means  will  do  that  which  I  was 
compelled  to  leave  undone. 


10 


THE  KEFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW. 

So  far  as  I  have  observed,  projects  for  Company- 
law  reform  have  concerned  only  the  methods  pursued 
in  the  formation  of  companies.  They  have  had  for 
their  aims  to  restrain  the  fraudulent  doings  of  pro- 
moters, and  to  prevent  delusion  of  the  public  by  the 
parading  of  apparently-responsible  directors  whose 
influential  names  have  been  indirectly  purchased. 
But  no  thought  appears  to  have  been  given  to  abuses 
existing  in  the  administrations  of  established  com- 
panies. Extremely  grave  evils  are,  however,  to  be 
observed  in  these,  and  it  is  high  time  they  should  be 
checked. 

Bred  of  the  great  political  superstition  that  there 
is  no  limit  to  the  powers  of  a  Parliamentary  major- 
ity (except  the  limit  of  physical  impossibility)  there 
has  long  prevailed,  and  now  appears  more  dominant 
than  ever,  the  notion  that,  given  any  kind  of  elected 
body — council,  directors,  or  what  not — which  was 
created  for  a  generally-understood  purpose,  a  major- 
ity of  it  may  undertake  other  purposes  never  con- 
templated when  its  members  were  appointed.  In  an 
234 


THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW.  235 

article  on  "  Railway  Morals  and  Railway  Policy/' 
published  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  October, 
1854  (see  Essays,  library  edition,  vol.  Ill),  I  pointed 
out  the  great  mischiefs  arising  from  this  misinterpre- 
tation of  the  proprietary  contract,  and  gave  an  illus- 
tration of  the  way  in  which  there  arose  an  abnormal 
forcing  on  of  extensions  and  branch  lines:  directors 
and  all  connected  with  the  administration  being  en- 
abled, by  guaranteed  shares,  to  make  profits  at  the 
expense  of  the  shareholders  at  large.  Since  then  this 
practice  of  committing  companies  to  subsidiary  un- 
dertakings, not  originally  even  dreamed  of,  has  great- 
ly extended:  hotels,  docks,  lines  of  steamers,  mines, 
&c,  being  successively  forced  on  men  who  originally 
subscribed  money  to  make  a  railway  from  A  to  B. 

And  now  we  see  the  like  illegitimate  extension 
taking  place  in  industrial  companies.  Directors  who 
were  elected  simply  to  carry  on  the  business  of  brew- 
ing, are  allowed  to  enter  on  speculative  enterprises; 
buying  not  ordinary  tied-houses  only,  but  great  ho- 
tels, and  even  subscribing  large  sums  to  speculative 
enterprises  utterly  alien  to  their  own:  witness  the 
case  of  Samuel  Allsopp  and  Sons,  Limited,  as  recent- 
ly reported  (The  Times,  August  31,  1901)  :  the  re- 
sult being  an  enormous  loss  and  a  depreciation  of 
shares.  Another  example  is  furnished  by  the  Lino- 
type Company,  formed  originally  for  the  purpose  of 
making  and  selling  Linotype  machines.     By  the  ac- 


236  THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW. 

tion  of  its  directors  this  company  has  been  led  into 
making  printing  appliances  of  various  kinds ;  so  that 
those  who  joined  in  an  enterprise  of  which  they 
found  reason  to  think  well,  are  now  committed  to 
many  other  enterprises  which  they  know  nothing 
about.  Of  this  abuse,  taking  another  form,  an  ex- 
treme case  is  furnished  by  the  doings  of  the  Lon- 
don and  Globe  Finance  Corporation,  as  shown  in 
recent  exposures.  Here  the  board  became  simply  a 
speculator  to  an  enormous  extent,  buying  up  vast 
amounts  of  mining  shares  to  obtain  permanent  con- 
trol; and  the  various  transactions,  altogether  un- 
known to  the  proprietary,  were  also  in  chief  measure 
unknown  to  all  the  directors  save  one — the  managing 
director.  Besides  such  excesses  of  directorial  power 
there  are  other  excesses  shown  by  committing  the 
proprietors  to  large  organic  changes.  At  a  recent 
meeting  of  the  Metropolitan  District  Railway,  the 
chairman  pointed  out  that  had  it  not  been  for  the 
immense  error  committed  by  past  boards  of  directors, 
in  issuing  perpetual  Six  per  cent,  debentures  and 
perpetual  Five  per  cent,  preference  stock,  the  com- 
pany would  now  be  a  prosperous  concern. 

How  directorial  power  should  be  curbed  is  a  diffi- 
cult question  to  answer.  More  deliberation  might 
perhaps  be  insisted  on.  Measures  of  importance  are 
too  easily  decided  and  carried  out  by  boards  of  di- 
rectors.    Should  there  not  be  restraints  akin  to  those 


THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW.  237 

which  our  two  legislative  houses  impose  on  them- 
selves by  requiring  a  second  and  a  third  considera- 
tion \  That  there  exists,  in  some  cases  at  least,  as  I 
have  ascertained,  a  course  of  business  which  involves 
re-considerations  is  true;  but  something  more  sys- 
tematic would  probably  be  beneficial.  It  may  also  be 
reasonably  asked  whether  all  measures  implying  con- 
siderable changes,  or  expenditures  of  large  amounts, 
should  not  be  referred  to  the  proprietary — whether 
before  a  final  decision  there  should  not  be  something 
like  a  referendum.  Doubtless  most  of  the  proprie- 
tors would  be  incapable  of  judging,  and  in  so  far  the 
procedure  would  be  inoperative;  but  from  some 
capable  business-men  w^ould  come  judgments  for  and 
against,  with  reasons  which  might  weigh;  and  be- 
yond that,  there  would,  in  important  cases,  be  the 
check  put  by  publication  in  the  financial  Press;  for 
of  course  through  one  or  other  channel  the  informa- 
tion would  pass  from  the  proprietary  to  the  public. 
Is  it  not  likely  that  when  the  directors  of  a  brewery 
company  were  obliged  thus  to  let  men  at  large  know 
that  they  were  proposing  to  speculate  in  the  shares  of 
an  amusement  company,  the  Press-criticisms  would 
check  them,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  proprie- 
tary ?  And  might  not  the  unwisdom  of  the  proposal 
to  saddle  the  shareholders  of  a  railway-company  with 
a  large  amount  of  Five  per  cent,  perpetual  prefer- 
ence stock  and  perpetual  Six  per  cent,  debentures, 


238  THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW. 

when  commented  upon  by  the  railway- journals,  suf- 
fice to  prevent  so  impolitic  a  step  ?  "  But  would  not 
anything  like  a  referendum  be  a  great  hindrance  to 
business  %  "  Hindrance  %  Yes ;  this  is  exactly  the 
thing  wanted.  Within  the  last  fifty  years  a  hundred 
millions  of  capital  have  been  lost  from  want  of  such 
hindrances. 

Abuses  which  might  readily  have  been  foreseen 
have  arisen  from  the  practice  of  making  the  chair- 
man of  a  board  of  directors  also  chairman  of  the 
meeting  of  proprietors — abuses  which  would  not 
have  existed  had  there  been  a  practice  like  that 
which,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  results  in  a  Speak- 
er who  is  independent  alike  of  the  party  in  power 
and  of  the  opposition.  The  present  arrangement  is 
conspicuously  absurd.  At  a  periodical  gathering  of 
shareholders  the  directors  have  to  render  an  account 
of  their  stewardship,  and  to  ask  for  the  shareholders' 
approval  of  what  they  have  done.  Yet  such  being 
the  purpose  it  is  thought  proper  that  the  chief  stew- 
ard shall  preside  and  regulate  the  proceedings!  Of 
course  as  chairman  he  has  large  power  of  impeding 
opponents  and  aiding  those  who  support  the  board. 
He  may  assert  that  a  speech  is  out  of  order,  or  that 
it  must  be  ended  from  lack  of  time,  or  that  other 
business  must  be  brought  forward;  or  appointed 
mouth-pieces  of  the  board  in  the  meeting  may  in- 


THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW.  239 

terrupt  or  contradict;  so  that,  save  in  cases  of  ex- 
treme misbehaviour  arousing  the  general  anger  of 
the  proprietary,  there  is  little  chance  that  an  opposi- 
tion will  make  itself  fairly  heard.  But  it  needs  no 
detail  to  show  that  if  you  give  a  board  whose  doings 
are  to  be  examined,  power  over  the  proceedings  of 
the  examining  body,  that  power  will  inevitably  be 
used  to  hinder  investigation  and  prevent  blame. 

That  the  current  practice  entails  conspicuous 
mischiefs,  here  is  a  proof.  Company  A,  with  good 
prospects,  needs  more  capital  and  has  exhausted  its 
means  of  obtaining  it.  As  a  last  resort  there  is 
formed  company  B,  consisting  mainly  of  large  share- 
holders in  company  A  who  have  confidence  in  its 
future.  An  agreement  is  made  under  which  com- 
pany B  is  to  buy  all  the  products  made  by  company 
A  and  pay  cash  for  them;  thus  practically  increas- 
ing company  A's  capital,  by  rendering  needless  the 
amount  required  for  giving  credit.  But  company  B 
does  this  only  on  condition  of  receiving  a  large  com- 
mission on  the  sale  of  company  A's  goods.  At  the 
same  time  company  B  enters  upon  a  like  commission- 
business  in  the  sale  of  machines  of  other  kinds.  Now 
this  arrangement  under  which,  as  said  by  its  chair- 
man, company  B  becomes  practically  a  banker  to 
company  A,  obtaining  high  interest  on  loans,  is  of 
limited  duration — five  years  or  ten  years,  I  do  not 
remember  which.     It  is  therefore  company  B's  inter- 


240  THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW. 

est  to  obtain  a  renewal  of  the  agreement,  so  as  to 
force  company  A  to  go  on  selling  machines  through 
its  agency  and  paying  this  high  commission ;  though 
company  A,  having  become  highly  prosperous,  no 
longer  needs  any  such  banking  aid.  But  now  mark 
the  significant  fact  that  the  same  gentleman  is  chair- 
man of  both  companies.  As  having  a  large  invest- 
ment in  company  B,  which  reaps  immense  dividends, 
he  is,  as  shown  by  his  utterances,  strongly  desirous 
of  obtaining  a  renewal  of  the  agreement.  Hence 
when  presiding  over  a  meeting  of  company  A  he  is 
swayed  by  interests  at  variance  with  those  of  its 
shareholders,  and  is  prompted  to  -get  the  agreement 
renewed  by  whatever  means  he  can — say,  among 
others,  the  postponement  of  the  question  of  renewal 
till  the  close  of  the  meeting,  when  a  large  number  have 
gone  away  leaving  behind  those  most  interested  in 
getting  the  renewal.  Clearly  under  the  presidency 
of  one  who  was  unconcerned  in  the  result,  company 
A  would  be  much  less  likely  to  be  disadvantaged. 

What  remedy  is  there  for  this  defect  in  the  pres- 
ent system  of  procedure?  The  appointment  of  a 
chairman  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  would  not  an- 
swer; since,  by  following  plans  previously  laid,  the 
board  would  readily  get  its  own  nominee  elected. 
Much  as  one  may  dislike  invoking  public  agency,  yet 
it  may  be  argued  that  for  the  due  administration  of 
justice,  it  would  be  fit  that  there  should  be  some  ten 


THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW.  241 

or  more  official  chairmen  to  company-meetings,  anal- 
ogous to  Official  Referees,  each  of  whom  should  re- 
ceive the  day  before  any  meeting  he  was  appointed 
to  by  a  public  authority,  the  programme  of  business 
to  be  gone  through. 

One  more  evil,  greater  even  than  those  above  de- 
scribed, remains.  This  is  the  system  of  voting  by 
proxy.  As  originally  devised,  a  proxy  was  a  means 
of  enabling  one  who  could  not  attend  a  meeting,  but 
had  reasons  for  voting  with  or  against  some  proposal, 
to  register  his  vote  by  the  agency  of  a  person  with 
whom  he  was  in  agreement,  or  on  whose  judgment 
he  could  rely.  It  was  never  intended  to  be  a  sur- 
render of  judgment  on  all  and  every  matter  into  the 
hands  of  some  one,  usually  unknown,  who  might  or 
might  not  be  an  unbiassed  judge.  Into  this,  how- 
ever, the  system  has  grown.  On  receiving  from  the 
secretary  a  form  duly  stamped  and  issued  at  the  cost 
of  the  company,  and  naming  the  chairman,  or  if  not, 
some  alternative  director,  or  if  not,  another  director, 
and  so  on,  as  his  proxy,  the  ordinary  unreflecting 
shareholder,  instead  of  throwing  it  into  the  fire  or 
waste-paper  basket,  thinks  himself  bound  to  sign  it, 
filled  up  in  favour  of  one  or  other  of  those  named — is 
under  a  vague  feeling  of  obligation  that  he  must  do 
something  with  it  in  the  manner  suggested.  If  asked 
his  reason  for  thus  giving  to   an  unknown  person 


242  THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW. 

power  to  decide  an  unknown  matter,  he  replies  that 
the  directors'  interests  are  the  same  as  his,  and  that 
they  know  more  about  the  company's  affairs  than  he 
does.  As  I  have  pointed  out  in  the  essay  above 
named,  and  have  there  conclusively  shown  by  facts, 
this  supposed  unity  of  interests  often  does  not  exist, 
and  I  have  above  further  proved  this:  the  interests 
of  directors  may  be  in  sundry  ways  at  variance  with 
those  of  proprietors.  Yet  the  effect  of  this  proxy- 
system  as  now  developed  is  to  give  directors  uncon- 
trolled powers.  The  shareholders  who  have  unques- 
tioning faith  in  the  governing  body  are  so  numerous, 
that  their  votes  overwhelm  the  votes  of  those  who  at- 
tend the  meetings,  and  either  already  know  a  good 
deal  about  the  matters  to  be  decided  or  gain  insight 
into  them  during  the  proceedings.  In  the  hands  of 
interested  manipulators  the  ignorance  of  the  many  is 
used  to  extinguish  the  knowledge  of  the  few.  And 
then,  naming  the  large  number  of  proxies  they  have 
received,  the  directors  tacitly  boast  of  the  confidence 
placed  in  them  and  the  implied  justification  of  their 
policy.  The  last  and  most  striking  illustration  of 
this  which  I  have  observed,  was  furnished  by  a  meet- 
ing of  the  London  and  Globe  Finance  Corporation, 
reported  in  The  Times  for  January  10,  1901 — a 
company  the  transactions  of  which  had  been,  and 
were  then,  under  grave  suspicion.  But  the  infatu- 
ated shareholders  did  not  waver,  as  was  shown  by  the 


THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW.  243 

following  statement  of  the  managing  director  and 

autocrat : — 

"Mr.  Whitaker  Wright,  in  seconding  the  motion,  stated 
that  the  directors  had  received  proxies  for  nearly  1,000,000 
shares  in  the  company  (cheers) ;  the  proxies  lodged  in  opposi- 
tion amounted  to  26,394  shares  ;  and  proxies  representing  4,887 
shares  had  come  in  too  late.  That  showed  the  view  of  the 
shareholders." 

The  worth  of  this  boasted  confidence  may  be  judged 
by  the  fact  that  the  company  is  now  in  course  of 
liquidation  under  an  order  of  the  Court. 

But  the  proxy-system  does  more  than  enable  di- 
rectors to  carry  out  schemes  that  are  at  variance  with 
the  interest  of  proprietors:  it  also  makes  the  board 
an  invulnerable  oligarchy.  In  a  case  which  I  have 
in  mind  (being  a  shareholder),  the  chairman  trium- 
phantly specified  the  great  number  of  proxies  in 
their  hands  which  they  had  used  for  the  re-election 
of  a  director  whose  place  had,  in  the  ordinary  rou- 
tine, been  vacated.  What  corollary  is  to  be  drawn? 
Spite  of  opposition,  the  board  as  a  whole  may,  by  the 
use  of  proxies  sent  to  its  members,  insure  the  re-elec- 
tion of  any  one  of  their  number  who  is  about  to  re- 
tire. Or  otherwise  the  chairman,  in  whose  favour 
the  great  mass  of  the  proxies  are  made  out,  is  en- 
abled, when  any  member  of  the  board  becomes  dis- 
agreeably recalcitrant — a  "  guinea-pig  "  who  unex- 
pectedly proves  to  have  a  will  of  his  own — to  use  his 
proxies  in  favour  of  some  new  candidiate  whom  he 


24:4:  THE  REFORM  OF  COMPANY-LAW. 

has  picked  out.  Thus  the  representative  government 
of  a  company  is  reduced  to  a  farce.  The  board  be- 
comes first  an  oligarchy  and  then  an  autocracy. 

Do  I  hope  for  any  results  from  these  protests,  or 
any  such  protests  ?  No ;  there  is  a  conclusive  reason 
why  no  changes  of  the  kind  required  will  be  made. 
Three  out  of  four  of  our  legislators  have  seats  on  one 
or  other  board  of  directors:  some  of  them  seats  on 
many  boards.  The  reforms  made  by  them  in  their 
capacity  of  legislators  would  restrict  their  powers  in 
their  capacity  of  directors.  Any  one  who  expects 
that  they  will  thus  sacrifice  themselves  takes  a  view 
of  human  nature  altogether  at  variance  with  experi- 
ence. 


SOME  MUSICAL  HEEESIES. 

It  lias  been  noted  as  curious  that  while  Newton 
rejected  the  undulatory  theory  of  light  propounded 
by  Huyghens,  Huyghens  refused  to  accept  the  theory 
of  universal  gravitation  set  forth  by  Newton. 

Why  do  I  name  here  this  seemingly  irrelevant 
fact  ?  Simply  as  an  illustration  of  the  truth  that 
the  opinions  of  experts,  even  of  supreme  rank,  are 
not  always  to  be  accepted  as  final.  Doctrines  reject- 
ed by  the  highest  authorities  sometimes  prove  true, 
and  consequently  some  small  scepticism  concerning 
beliefs  apparently  unquestionable  may  be  allowed. 
This  must  be  my  excuse  for  venturing  opinions 
which  will  not  meet  with  acceptance  among  experts 
in  music. 

And  first  let  me  note  that  musical  experts  are 
specially  exposed  to  perverting  influences.  Music 
has  two  distinct  components — the  sensational  and  the 
relational.  One  part  of  the  impression  it  produces 
results  from  the  character  o'f  the  tones,  and  the  other 
part  from  the  mode  of  combination  of  the  tones. 
The  feeling  a  piece  of  music  produces  may  be  in 
various  degrees  pleasurable  or  sometimes  painful,  ac- 

245 


246  SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES. 

cording  as  the  component  tones  have  timbres  that 
are  in  various  degrees  agreeable  or  sometimes  even 
disagreeable;  while  there  is  another  pleasure  which 
the  successions  and  combinations  of  tones  may  give 
apart  from  their  qualities.  From  this  platitude 
there  is  a  corollary  which  here  concerns  us.  The 
tones  are  the  products  of  the  voices  or  instruments 
employed,  and  though  the  singer  and  the  player  re- 
spectively try  to  improve  them,  they  are  in  their 
main  qualities  fixed.  The  chief  part  of  the  execu- 
tive skill  to  be  gained,  especially  by  the  instrumen- 
talist, is  skill  in  producing  successions  of  tones  in 
the  most  perfect  way,  or,  as  on-  the  piano,  combina- 
tions of  tones:  the  relational  clement  of  the  music 
predominates  in  his  thoughts.  Still  more  is  this  so 
with  the  composer.  In  his  mind  the  relational  ele- 
ment is  practically  the  exclusive  element.  While  he 
desires  that  his  ideas  shall  be  expressed  in  fine  tones, 
and  tones  appropriately  varied,  yet,  as  composer,  he 
is  almost  wholly  occupied  with  such  arrangements  of 
tones,  successive  and  simultaneous,  as  will  convey 
his  ideas.  The  very  name  composer  implies  this. 
Hence  it  happens  that  in  chief  measure  the  composer, 
and  in  large  measure  the  performer,  when  judging 
of  a  musical  effect,  thinks"  more  of  its  relational  char- 
acters than  of  its  sensational  characters.  A  Paga- 
nini  will  take  greater  pride  in  his  marvellous  dexter- 
ity of  arm  and  finger  than  in  the  timbres  of  his  tones. 


SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES.  247 

though  he  desires  that  these  also  shall  be  good.  And 
similarly  a  Beethoven,  when  listening  to  a  symphony 
he  has  composed,  will  receive  greater  gratification 
from  the  beautiful  successions  and  complexes  of  its 
notes,  than  from  the  tones  of  the  various  instruments, 
however  good  they  may  be.  Hence,  then,  musicians 
of  both  classes  necessarily  tend  to  overvalue  the  re- 
lational elements.  If  the  relational  elements  are 
good  they  will  be  apt  to  condone  defects  in  the  sen- 
sational elements :  witness  the  way  in  which  they  tol- 
erate the  grunts  made  in  playing  a  forte  passage  on 
the  double  bass. 

Among  sequences  of  the  implied  tendency,  one  is 
their  exaltation  of  the  violin  and  forgiveness  of  its 
grave  defects.  It  is  currently  called  a  perfect  in- 
strument— perfect  in  the  sense  that  it  expresses  with 
facility  all  the  relational  elements  of  music — all  the 
varieties  of  contrasts  and  kinds  of  contrasts  among 
tones.  But  the  poorness  of  the  tones  themselves  is 
overlooked.  They  have  two  incurable  defects.  One 
is  conspicuous — the  hiss  of  the  bow  and  production 
of  high  over-tones  as  it  is  drawn  over  the  string, 
which,  however  much  subdued  by  a  first-rate  player, 
can  never  be  wholly  got  rid  of.  The  other,  though 
not  conspicuous,  is  no  less  great,  perhaps  even  greater. 
The  sounds  come  from  strings  restrained  in  their 
vibrations.  Continuous  contact  of  the  bow  prevents 
each  string  from  reaching  the  normal  limit  of  its 


248  SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES. 

swing  in  either  direction,  and  the  character  of  the 
air-waves  produced  differs  from  what  it  would  be 
were  the  oscillations  unchecked.  There  is  clear 
proof  of  this.  Contrast  the  tones  of  a  violin  with 
the  tones  of  an  iEolian  harp.  The  two  are  alike  in 
the  respect  that  their  vibrating  strings  are  attached 
to  sounding  boxes,  but  unlike  in  the  respect  that  the 
vibrations  are  in  the  one  case  checked  and  in  the 
other  case  unchecked.  No  one  will  deny  that  the 
sounds  of  the  iEolian  harp  are  far  sweeter  than 
those  of  the  violin:  which  last,  indeed,  suggest  the 
voice  of  a  shrew  in  a  good  temper. 

To  this  contentment  of  musicians  with  an  instru- 
ment so  imperfect  in  its  tones  though  perfect  in  its 
relational  expressiveness,  we  may  ascribe  the  char- 
acters of  orchestras;  since  in  them  the  tones  of 
stringed  instruments  so  greatly  predominate.  We 
are  all  of  us;  composers  and  musicians  included, 
brought  up  in  passive  acceptance  of  ideas,  sentiments, 
and  usages,  political,  religious,  and  social,  and  I  may 
here  add  artistic.  We  accept  the  qualities  of  orches- 
tral music  as  in  a  sense  necessary;  never  asking 
whether  they  are  or  are  not  all  that  can  be  desired. 
But  if  we  succeed  in  escaping  from  these  influences 
of  custom,  we  may  perceive  that  orchestras  are  very 
defective.  Beauty  they  can  render;  grace  they  can 
render;  delicacy  they  can  render;  but  where  is  the 
dignity,  where  is  the  grandeur?     There  is  a  lack  of 


SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES.  249 

adequate  impressiveness.  Think  of  the  volume  and 
quality  of  the  tones  coming  from  an  organ,  and  then 
think  of  those  coming  from  an  orchestra.  There  is 
a  massive  emotion  produced  by  the  one  which  the 
other  never  produces :  you  cannot  get  dignity  from  a 
number  of  violins.  This  under-valuation  of  the  sen- 
sational element  in  music  is,  I  think,  clearly  shown 
by  the  way  in  which  musicians  tolerate  the  perform- 
ance of  chamber-music  in  a  great  hall.  For  many 
years  past,  the  Monday  Popular  Concerts  and  the 
Saturday-afternoon  Rehearsals,  have  made  this  abuse 
conspicuous.  I  say  advisedly — abuse,  for  it  is  utter- 
ly at  variance  with  the  intentions  of  the  composers. 
A  quartet  or  a  piece  for  five  or  six  stringed  instru- 
ments, is  intended  to  be  played  in  a  small  room:  the 
composer  knowing  that  only  by  the  reverberation  it 
gives  can  there  be  produced  that  volume  of  sound  re- 
quired for  the  harmonies ;  since,  necessarily,  the  sen- 
sations caused  by  the  concords  of  sounds  are  much 
weaker  than  those  caused  by  the  sounds  themselves. 
But  this  need  for  a  small  room,  which  the  name 
"  chamber-music  "  implies,  is  ignored,  and  there  is 
contentment  with  performance  in  a  vast  space  where 
the  harmonies  become  feeble.  The  reason  is  clear. 
As  the  relational  elements  are  well  rendered  this  de- 
ficiency of  the  sensational  elements  is  forgiven.* 

*  Of  course  it  will  be  said  that  quartets,  &c.,  performed  in 
small  rooms  would  entail  loss  :  the  audiences  would  not  be  lar^e 
17 


250  SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES. 

Yet  a  further  defect  is  produced  in  orchestral 

music   by   the   supremacy   of   stringed   instruments. 

ISTot  only  are  the  violins  predominant  in  the  sense 

that  they  yield  the  greater  part  of  the  sound,  but  also 

in  the  sense  that  their  presence  is  continuous:  they 

are  always  making  themselves  heard.     The  result  is 

a  lack  of  massive  variety:  there  are  plenty  of  small 

varieties,  but  not  enough  of  large  ones.     That  this  is 

enough.  This  is  a  sufficient  reply  from  the  entrepreneur's  point 
of  view,  but  the  needs  of  musical  effect  cannot  be  satisfied  by  any 
such  plea.  My  belief  is  that  a  composer  would  rather  not  have 
his  quartet  performed  at  all  than  have  it  performed  in  a  way  that 
sacrifices  so  much  of  its  beauty.  I  am  the  more  led  to  believe 
this  on  remembering  that  after  one  or  two  experiences  I  ceased 
to  attend  these  performances :  being  dissatisfied  with  the  general 
thinness  and  with  the  feebleness  of  the  harmonies. 

Here  I  may  add  that  I  have  sometimes  speculated  about  the 
possibility  of  fitting  a  room  for  musical  purposes  by  increasing  its 
resonance.  If,  as  every  one  knows,  surfaces  such  as  those  of  cur- 
tains deaden  sound  by  not  reflecting  it,  and  if,  as  every  one 
knows,  a  voice  in  an  empty  room  is  much  louder  than  in  a  fur- 
nished one,  it  is  inferable  that  a  room  having  surfaces  which  vi- 
brate will  give  an  increased  volume  to  sound.  Suppose  that  along 
the  line  of  the  cornice  and  again  along  the  line  of  the  skirting  a 
rigid  iron  or  steel  framework  were  fixed  with  brackets  at  intervals, 
strong  enough  to  bear  a  great  vertical  strain.  Suppose  again 
that  pine  boards,  say  nine  inches  wide  and  a  quarter  or  half  an 
inch  thick,  varnished  so  as  to  exclude  atmospheric  moisture,  were 
fastened  vertically  between  these  two  framings  at  one-eighth  of 
an  inch  apart;  each  terminating  in  an  iron  clamp  at  top  and  bot- 
tom but  independent  of  the  framework,  save  by  the  intermedia- 
tion of  a  powerful  screw  at  each  end  attached  to  the  clamp,  and 
capable  of  being  tightened  more  or  less.  And  suppose  these 
boards,  strained  by  the  screws  at  each  end  but  otherwise  five, 
to  be  also  free  from  the  wall:  an  interval  of  an  inch  or  so  inter- 
vening.    Thus  covering  t lie  entire   surface  of  t lie    room,  these 


SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES.  251 

a  grave  defect  may  be  positively  asserted,  for  it  is  de- 
ducible  from  a  universal  principle  of  art.  Achieved 
by  arrangement  of  contrasts,  great  and  small,  art  of 
every  kind  forbids  that  monotony  caused  by  the  di- 
recting of  constant  attention  to  one  element.  Orches- 
tral effects  need  much  greater  specialization.  Sounds 
of  kindred  qualities  should  at  one  moment  be  used 
for  one  purpose  and  then  sounds  of  other  kindred 
qualities  should  be  used  for  another  purpose:  thus 
differentiating  the  rnasses  of  sound  more  than  at 
present.  In  fact,  there  requires  a  larger  step  in  evo- 
lution— a  more  marked  advance  from  the  indefinitely 
homogeneous  to  the  definitely  heterogeneous. 

Further  contemplation  of  the  contrast  between 
the  emotion  produced  by  an  organ  and  that  produced 
by  an  orchestra,  shows  that  a  large  part  of  this  con- 
trast is  due  to  the  far  greater  predominance  which 
the  bass  has  in  the  organ  than  in  the  orchestra.  It  is 
from  the  volume  of  an  organ's  deep  tones  that  there 
comes   that  profound   impressiveness   which   an   or- 

boards  might,  on  the  occasion  of  any  approaching:  performance, 
be  tuned  by  the  adjusting  screws,  so  that  the  dull  tones  they 
gave  out  when  struck,  though  relatively  deep  would  be  in  har- 
mony with  the  tones  of  the  instruments,  and  so  that,  by  vibra- 
tion in  nodal  divisions,  higher  notes  would  be  yielded.  The  aerial 
waves  .striking  them  would  be  not  only  reflected  back  as  in  an 
empty  room,  but  would  be  reflected  back  reinforced  by  the  vi- 
brations of  the  boards  they  struck.  One  who  doubts  the  ability 
of  the  boards  thus  to  respond,  needs  but  to  recall  the  ability  of 
the  metal  disc  of  a  telephone  to  respond  to  the  faint  sounds  con- 
stituting articulations. 


252  SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES. 

chestra  lacks.  As  a  masculine  trait,  deep  tones  are 
associated  with  power,  and  their  effect  is  therefore 
relatively  imposing.  To  show  that  this  is  so,  it  needs 
but  to  recall  a  part  of  an  organ  performance  in  which 
the  upper  tones  only  are  used,  to  see  that  but  little 
of  the  dignity  and  grandeur  remain.  Necessarily, 
therefore,  in  an  orchestra,  while  the  sounds  of  the 
violins  are  predominant,  the  trait  of  dignity  is 
absent. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  the  bass-element  is 
unduly  subordinated.  Besides  having  too  small  a 
share  in  the  mass  of  sounds  which  constitute  any 
complex  composition,  it  is  habitually  excluded  from 
the  leadership.  The  theme  is  almost  invariably 
given  to  the  treble,  and  the  bass  is  relegated  to  the 
accompaniment.  This  was  not  always  so.  In  old 
times  when,  omitting  folk-songs,  church-music  was 
the  only  music,  such  air  or  melody  as  existed  was 
taken  by  the-  bass.  Necessarily,  indeed,  this  hap- 
pened ;  since  in  those  days  it  was  thought  improper 
that  women  should  sing  the  praises  of  God  in  the 
presence  of  men ;  and  it  is  not  likely  that  there  wore 
boy-choristers.  Even  now,  in  Continental  church- 
music,  the  bass  takes  a  dominant  part,  and  especially 
so  in  Russia,  where  unusually  deep  basses  are  in  re- 
quest for  church-services.*    What  caused  the  change  ? 

*  It  is  narrated  that  one  of  these  church-choristers,  noted  for 
his  extremely  deep  and  powerful  bass,  was  once  when  travelling 


SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES.  253 

From  Sir  Hubert  Parry's  work,  The  Evolution  of  the 
Art  of  Music  (pp.  105-9),  it  appears  that  the  growth 
of  secular  choral  music  was  achieved  by  adding 
higher  voice  parts  to  these  bass  church-melodies :  thus 
preparing  the  way  for  transfer  of  melodies  to  the 
treble.  Possibly  the  eventual  supremacy  of  the  treble 
was  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that,  when  rude  forms  of 
opera  arose,  librettists  and  composers  were  prompted 
by  the  sex-sentiment  to  give  the  leading  part  to  the 
heroine,  with  the  result  that  the  accompanying  or- 
chestral music  came  to  have  a  predominance  of  treble 
tones.  There  may  have  been  a  further  influence. 
If,  as  is  alleged,  instrumental  music  of  the  higher 
kinds  grew  out  of  dance-music,  then  as  in  dance- 
music  the  treble,  most  expressive  of  liveliness,  ha- 
bitually predominated,  this  monopolizing  of  the  lead- 
ership by  the  treble  followed  naturally.  Be  the  cause 
what  it  may,  however,  assignment  of  the  themes,  or 
leading  figures,  or  melodies,  to  the  treble,  has  become 
an  established  tradition.  May  not  this  tradition  be 
fitly  challenged  ?  Greater  variety,  greater  impress- 
iveness,  greater  beauty,  might  I  think  be  attained  by 
dividing  the  leadership,  and  giving  the  bass  if  not 
an  equal  share  still  a  large  share.  Some  illustra- 
tions may  be  named  as  justifying  this  belief.     In 

attacked  by  robbers  ;  but  when  he  began  to  roar  at  them  they 
fled,  thinking  it  impossible  that  any  one  but  a  supernatural  being 
could  emit  such  sounds. 


254  SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES. 

that  charming  old  song  "  Pur  di  cesti,"  a  fine  effect 
is  produced  when,  during  an  interval,  the  bass  ac- 
companiment takes  up  the  melody.  In  the  three 
Contre-Tanze  by  Beethoven,  as  arranged  for  the 
piano  by  Seiss,  the  first  in  quite  an  exceptional  way 
gives  the  melody  to  the  bass,  and  the  effect  is  ex- 
tremely refreshing.  And  then  there  is  the  third 
movement  of  Beethoven's  C-minor  Symphony,  in 
which  the  prominent  part  taken  by  the  bass  gives  a 
distinguishing  grandeur,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
gives  unusual  variety.  Is  it  not  time  that  the  femi- 
nine element  should  lose  its  predominance,  and  that 
the  masculine  element  should  come  to  the  front  along 
with  it  ? 

Among  future  changes  some  old  forms  of  orches- 
tral music  may  possibly  lose  their  pre-eminence.  It 
is  said  that  the  symphony  was  originally  a  suite  de 
pieces — the  pieces  being  dance-music.  Hence,  con- 
sidered as  a  work  of  art,  the  symphony  has  no  natu- 
ral coherence.  Further,  it  seems  that  since  in  the 
choice  of  pieces  to  form  the  suite,  the  aim  must  have 
been  variety,  the  successive  pieces  were  selected  not 
for  their  kinship  but  for  their  absence  of  kinship. 
Of  course  a  like  remark  applies  to  the  sonata,  in 
which,  also,  the  absence  of  kinship  is  conspicuous: 
instance  Beethoven's  Op.  26,  in  which  the  funeral 
march  stands  in  such  strong  contrast  alike  with  the 
scherzo  which  precedes  it  and  with  the  allegro  which 


SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES.  255 

succeeds  it.  It  may  be  true  that  iu  each  such  work  a 
design  runs  through  the  whole — that  between  the 
beginning  and  the  ending  in  the  same  key,  the 
changes  of  key  to  the  dominant  and  sub-dominant 
preserve  a  structural  relationship;  that  the  connex- 
ions among  the  themes  are  so  maintained  that  by 
the  instructed  musician  a  passage  is  recognized  as 
appropriately  related  to  a  preceding  passage  a  hun- 
dred or  two  bars  away ;  and  that  thus  to  a  "  high 
musical  intelligence  "  the  coherence  is  appreciable, 
and  pleasure  given  by  "  the  beauty  of  thought "  dis- 
played in  the  construction.  But  here  we  have  ex- 
emplified that  misdirection  of  art  before  commented 
upon,  which  makes  intellectual  interest  a  dominant 
aim.  Truly  artistic  changes  should  be  such  as  min- 
ister to  natural  changes  of  feeling,  either  emotional 
or  sensational,  such  as  might  naturally  arise  from 
changes  of  mood.  Arbitrary  ones,  however  skilfully 
managed,  negative  that  manifest  coherence  which  a 
work  of  art  should  have. 

Are  there  not  possible  forms  of  orchestral  music 
which  shall  present  successive  stages  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  a  musical  inspiration  ?  Might  not  a  piece  of 
such  kind  begin  with  a  rudimentary  figure  occupying 
attention  for  a  short  space  ?  Then  out  of  this  might 
there  not  come  a  slightly  elaborated  form,  or  rather 
several  such  forms  diverging  in  different  ways,  each 
giving  scope  for  varieties  of  orchestral  treatment, 


256  SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES. 

and  such  of  them  as  were  least  successful  being 
dropped  \  Out  of  the  best  might  there  not  come  a 
further  elaboration,  admitting  of  more  numerous  in- 
strumental combinations;  and  again  disappearance 
of  the  inferior  leading  to  survival  of  the  most  fin- 
ished theme  with  its  developed  accompaniments? 
Similarly  by  variation  and  selection  might  be  evolved 
a  musical  idea  still  better  adapted  to  the  sentiment 
of  the  piece;  and  so  on  continuously.  Meanwhile 
by  deviation  from  one  or  other  of  these  figures  or 
melodic  passages  might  come  some  conception  so  far 
different  in  character -as  to  furnish  novelty  of  effect; 
and  this  being  in  like  ways  developed  through  suc- 
cessive stages  might  yield  the  needful  large  contrasts ; 
and  so  on  step  by  step  until  the  highest  development 
of  the  composition  was  reached.  Thus  might  be 
achieved  that  coherence  which,  characterizing  evolu- 
tion, should  characterize  a  work  of  art.  There  would 
also  result  the  heterogeneity  which  is  a  trait  of  de- 
velopment; as  well  as  that  concomitant  trait  of  in- 
creasing definiteness,  implied  by  the  finished  form 
of  the  conception.  At  the  same  time  the  auditor 
would  have  the  pleasure  of  watching  the  gradual 
unfolding  of  the  composer's  idea,  and  the  succes- 
sive exaltations  of  the  sentiment  expressed;  while 
the  variety  in  unity  would  be  step  by  step  made 
manifest. 

Here  let  me  close  my  heretical  suggestions.     In 


SOME  MUSICAL  HERESIES.  257 

music  as  in  all  other  things  the  one  certainty  is  that 
the  future  will  differ  from  the  past  and  from  the 
present;  and  perhaps  an  outsider  may  not  be  alto- 
gether unjustified  in  suggesting  what  some  of  the 
divergences  may  be. 


DISTINGUISHED  DISSENTEKS. 

"  Force  till  right  is  ready,"  was  a  maxim  with 
Mr.  Matthew  Arnold.  It  expressed  his  general  ex- 
altation of  authority.  Curiously  enough,  along  with 
his  recurring  condemnation  of  "  machinery "  went 
laudation  of  controlling  agencies,  which  necessarily 
implied  machinery  for  achieving  contemplated  bene- 
fits. Hence  his  advocacy  of  an  Academy.  Hence 
his  applause  of  the  Continental  regime  at  large, 
which  is  relatively  coercive.  Hence  his  implied 
praise  of  a  State-church  notwithstanding  his  aban- 
donment of  the  creed  taught  by  it.  And  hence  his 
expressions  of  dislike  for  dissenters. 

That  this  contempt  of  those  who,  as  he  puts  it, 
divide  their  energies  between  "  business  and  Beth- 
els," had  some  reason,  cannot  be  denied.  The  dis- 
senting world  as  a  whole  coincides  in  large  measure 
with  the  middle-class  world,  joined  with  a  superior 
part  of  the  working-class  world.  Those  included  do 
not  display  any  of  that  culture  on  which  Mr.  Arnold 
perpetually  insists,  but  pass  their  lives  in  a  dull  un- 
intellectual  routine:  not,  however,  as  he  admits,  dif- 
258 


DISTINGUISHED  DISSENTERS.  259 

fering  much  in  intellectuality  from  the  mass  of  those 
above  them.  Unfortunately  for  his  argument,  how- 
ever, he  has  made  a  comparison,  or  professed  to  make 
a  comparison,  between  the  notable  men  among 
churchmen  and  dissenters  respectively.  I  say  un- 
fortunately because,  swayed  by  his  own  culture  ex- 
clusively, he  has  recognized  only  literary  achieve- 
ments, or  rather,  achievements  in  that  literature 
classed  as  divinity:  naming  Hooker,  Barrow,  But- 
ler on  the  one  side,  and  Milton,  Baxter,  and  Wesley 
on  the  other :  adding  that  these  last  "  were  trained 
within  the  pale  of  the  Establishment."  {Culture  and 
Anarchy,  xx.)  But  if  any  fair  comparison  is  to  be 
made  between  Church  and  Dissent  in  respect  of  their 
distinguished  men,  then  men  of  scientific  distinction 
must  be  included ;  and  if  this  be  done  Dissent  comes 
prominently  into  the  foreground. 

We  have  first  the  achievement  of  Priestley  in  the 
discovery  of  oxygen,  who,  though  he  "  builded  better 
than  he  knew,"  and  did  not  understand  the  full 
meaning  of  his  results,  nevertheless  brought  to  light 
the  element  which,  judged  by  the  part  it  plays,  may 
be  called  the  most  important  of  all  the  elements,  and 
who,  beyond  this  discovery,  added  much  to  our 
knowledge  by  his  many  scientific  researches:  being 
also  a  man  widely  cultured  in  various  ways,  linguis- 
tic and  other. 

Next  in  order  of  time  comes  the  Quaker  Young, 


260  DISTINGUISHED  DISSENTERS. 

who  from  his  early  days  was  an  Admirable  Crichton ; 
displaying  not  only  knowledge  but  originality  of 
many  kinds.  In  adult  life  his  two  greatest  achieve- 
ments, quite  opposite  in  their  natures,  were  decipher- 
ment of  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  and  demonstra- 
tion of  the  undulatory  theory  of  light.  That  which 
Huyghens  left  as  a  hypothesis,  he  established  as  a 
demonstrated  truth ;  and  he  did  this  in  a  manner  so 
masterly  that  Herschel  described  his  investigations  as 
worthy  of  Newton.  Equally  in  business,  in  science, 
and  in  linguistic  lore,  he  was  conspicuous — more  con- 
spicuous abroad  than  at  home. 

Out  of  this  same  small  sect,  4;he  Quakers,  came 
another  revolutionary  thinker — Dalton.  Only  vague 
conceptions  about  chemical  combinations  had,  up  to 
this  time,  prevailed ;  and  though  Bryan  and  William 
Higgins  had  foreshadowed  atomic  combination,  it  was 
reserved  for  Dalton  to  propound  the  Atomic  Theory 
of  matter.  In  conformity  with  this  universally-ac- 
cepted theory,  all  chemical  investigations  are  now 
carried  on,  all  chemical  combinations  and  decompo- 
sitions interpreted,  so  that  there  is  no  substance  (ex- 
cluding mere  mixtures)  which  is  not  regarded  as 
composed  of  definite  proportions.  AVhether  the 
atoms  of  which  compounds  are  formed  are  regarded 
as  actual  units  of  different  kinds,  or  whether  they 
are  regarded  as  merely  symbolical,  there  remains  in 
either  case  the  truth  that  there  is  an  exact  equiva- 


DISTINGUISHED  DISSENTERS.  261 

lence  between  the  amounts  of  different  elements 
which  combine,  and  between  the  components  of  their 
re-combinations.  Dalton  was  elected,  without  his  re- 
quest, to  the  Royal  Society  and  to  the  French  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences.  It  should  be  added  that  he  was  the 
first  to  enunciate  the  law  of  the  expansion  of  gases 
by  heat,  and  that  he  pursued  with  success  sundry 
other  lines  of  research. 

We  come  lastly  to  Faraday,  universally  known  for 
the  variety  and  importance  of  his  achievements  in 
physics.  First  there  came  his  discoveries  in  electro- 
magnetism,  and  the  induction  of  electric  currents: 
the  result  being  the  establishment  of  that  mutual 
relation  of  electric  action  and  magnetic  action  which 
initiated  the  vast  series  of  modern  electrical  develop- 
ments. Then  followed  the  reduction  of  electrolytic 
action  to  a  definite  form — the  proof  of  the  electrical 
equivalence  of  the  ions  of  any  compound  decomposed. 
After  an  interval  came  the  magnetization  of  polar- 
ized light,  and  the  phenomena  of  diamagnetism :  two 
openings  into  new  fields  of  scientific  research. 

As  implied  above,  the  comparison  made  by  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold  between  men  of  Conformist  origin 
and  men  of  ISTonconformist  origin,  he  ostensibly  lim- 
ited to  those  who  have  produced  moral  effects  on  the 
community.     He  writes : — 

"An  establishment  which  has  produced  Hooker,  Barrow, 
Butler,  has  done  more  to  moralise  and  ennoble  English  states- 


262  DISTINGUISHED   DISSENTERS. 

men  and  their  conduct  than  communities  which  have  produced 
the  Nonconformist  divines.  The  fruitful  men  of  English  Puri- 
tanism and  Nonconformity  are  men  who  were  trained  within 
the  pale  of  the  Establishment — Milton,  Baxter,  Wesley.  A 
generation  or  two  outside  the  Establishment,  and  Puritanism 
produces  men  of  national  mark  no  more." 

Now  even  if  we  restrict  the  comparison  in  the 
way  Mr.  Arnold  does,  it  may  be  effectively  contended 
that  towards  moralising  and  ennobling  English 
statesmen  the  men  he  names  have  done  less  than 
men  of  the  class  he  derides — less  than  Romilly,  who, 
of  Nonconformist  (Huguenot)  origin,  initiated  the 
de-barbarization  of  our  penal  code — less  than  How- 
ard, who  did  so  much  towards  humanizing  the  treat- 
ment of  prisoners — less  than  the  three  Quakers,  Dill- 
wyn,  Wood,  and  Sharp,  who  began  the  anti-slavery 
agitation,  and,  with  the  Sturges  and  others  of  the 
same  sect,  greatly  contributed  to  its  success — less, 
too,  than  the  once-ridiculed  but  afterwards  honoured 
John  Bright,  who  was  an  efficient  agent  towards  re- 
peal of  the  taxes  on  food,  and  was  conspicuous  as 
the  leading  opponent  of  a  war  since  recognized  as 
having  cost  much  life  and  treasure  to  no  purpose.  If 
any  one  looks  for  the  ennobling  and  moralising  ef- 
fects of  the  bishops  on  the  conduct  of  the  House  of 
Lords,  he  will  look  long  to  small  purpose ;  and,  speak- 
ing generally  of  the  lower  House,  it  is  manifest  that 
all  the  steps  in  liberalization,  that  is,  towards  nobler 
institutions,  have  not  proceeded  from  those  brought 


DISTINGUISHED  DISSENTERS.  2G3 

up  under  Church-discipline,  but  have  proceeded, 
either  directly  or  through  outside  influences,  from 
men  of  Nonconformist  origin.  So  that  even  if  we 
narrow  the  comparison  as  Mr.  Arnold  does,  the  con- 
clusion goes  against  him. 

But,  as  already  indicated,  the  strange  fact  is  that 
Mr.  Arnold  excludes  from  the  comparison  all  those 
mental  achievements  by  which  the  life  of  our  nation 
and  of  other  nations  have  been  mainly  influenced. 
He  says — "  A  generation  or  two  outside  the  Estab- 
lishment, and  Puritanism  produces  men  of  national 
mark  no  more  " — national  mark  being,  in  Mr.  Ar- 
nold's view,  estimated  only  by  production  of  litera- 
ture: scientific  discovery  being  ignored.  It  is  curi- 
ous to  observe  what  a  blinding  effect  culture,  of  the 
literary  kind  alone,  may  have.  For  it  would  seem 
that  Mr.  Arnold  knows  nothing  of  those  great  revolu- 
tions in  thought  which,  in  the  course  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, were  produced  by  Priestley,  Dalton,  Young, 
and  Faraday.  Puritanism,  he  says,  "  after  a  gen- 
eration or  two  outside  the  Establishment,  produces 
men  of  national  mark  no  more  "  ;  whereas  these  men 
were  not  only  men  of  national  mark  but  men  of 
world-wide  mark — men  whose  discoveries  affected 
the  mental  careers  of  the  scientifically-cultured  every- 
where, while  changing  the  industrial  activities  of 
mankind  at  large.  Consider  what  would  be  the  state 
of  chemical  knowledge  had  not  Priestley  discovered 


264  DISTINGUISHED  DISSENTERS. 

oxygen,  understanding  little  though,  he  did  the  part 
it  plays  in  the  order  of  Nature.  Consider  where 
would  have  been  the  fabric  of  chemical  combinations 
in  all  the  enormous  complexities  it  has  reached,  in 
the  absence  of  Dalton's  Atomic  Theory.  Consider 
what  would  be  the  state  of  astro-physics,  and  our 
knowledge  of  the  constitutions  of  the  stars  and  nebu- 
lae, had  not  the  undulatory  theory  of  light  been  dem- 
onstrated by  Young.  And  consider  what  would  have 
been  our  ideas  of  the  electric  and  magnetic  forces  and 
their  connexions  with  light,  had  not  Faraday  ini- 
tiated the  theory  of  their  correlations,  and  led  the 
way  towards  those  vast  conceptions  of  universal 
forces  which  now  pervade  physical  inquiry,  as  well  as 
to  those  vast  applications  of  them  which  are  trans- 
forming industry. 

Quite  unawares  Mr.  Arnold,  by  the  criticism  he 
provokes,  has  done  the  reverse  of  that  which  he  in- 
tended. Incidentally  he  has  drawn  attention  to  the 
astounding  fact  that,  during  less  than  a  century, 
these  four  English  dissenters  did  more  towards  revo- 
lutionizing the  world's  physical  conceptions,  and  by 
consequence  its  activities,  than  any  other  four  men 
who  can  be  named. 


BAEBAEIC  AET. 

A  connexion  naturally  exists  between  barbaric 
types  of  art  and  barbaric  types  of  society.  Autoc- 
racy is  the  origin  of  both. 

As  shown  when  treating  of  modern  Imperialism 
and  of  Ee-barbarization,  both  are  concomitants  of 
growing  militancy;  and  militancy  in  its  developed 
form  implies  coercive  government.  One  of  the  ac- 
companiments of  despotism  is  display,  serving  to  over- 
awe the  popular  mind  by  manifestations  of  power  of 
every  kind.  One  manifestation  is  a  gorgeous  and 
highly-elaborated  style  of  art — a  style  which  sug- 
gests the  thought  of  enormous  cost  and  enormous 
labour,  implying  unlimited  control  over  men.  The 
earliest  times  show  us  this  in  the  decorations  of 
Egyptian  tombs  and  temples,  internally  lined 
throughout  with  frescoes  and  externally  covered  with 
sculptured  details  of  conquests;  and  the  like  traits 
may  be  seen  in  the  remains  of  the  Assyrian  civiliza- 
tion. So  was  it  in  the  past  and  is  at  present  in  all 
Eastern  countries,  where  no  form  of  rule  is  known 
18  .  265 


266  BARBARIC  ART. 

but  that  of  the  autocrat.  Dresses  crusted  over  with 
gems  and  gold  distinguish  the  ruler  and  his  belong- 
ings, while  his  weapons  and  insignia  of  office  are 
similarly  weighted  with  costly  decorations,  and  his 
gorgeously  caparisoned  horses  and  attendants  add  to 
his  grandeur.  If  we  pass  to  Europe  in  early  days  we 
see  this  display,  implying  possession  of  power,  not  in 
court  paraphernalia  only  but  in  implements  of  war 
■ — suits  of  armour  were  elaborately  inlaid  with  pre- 
cious metals,  while  the  surfaces  of  swords,  and  in  later 
days  fire-arms,  were  covered  with  chasing.  Every- 
where costliness  was  implied,  and  hence  expense 
came  to  be  the  concomitant  of  high  art.*  Only  with 
decline  of  the  militant  regime,  and  correlative  growth 
of  the  industrial  regime,  did  there  begin  to  show 
itself  that  relative  simplicity  by  which  truly  high  art 
is  characterized.  A  typical  illustration  of  the  change 
is  furnished  by  the  modern  preference  for  uncoloured 
sculpture  to  the  coloured  sculpture  and  coloured  wax- 
work common  in  medieval  days  and  in  still  earlier 
days. 

And  now,  along  with  that  re-barbarization  ac- 
companying the  movement  towards  Imperialism,  we 

*  A  striking  illustration  comes  to  me  just  before  this  page 
goes  to  press.  In  The  Times  for  March  7,  1902,  the  Japanese 
correspondent  states  that  a  pair  of  silver  vases,  15  inches  high, 
and  inlaid  with  gold,  to  be  presented  by  the  Mikado  to  King 
Edward  VII  on  the  occasion  of  the  Coronation,  represent  "seven 
years'  work  of  30  of  the  best  Japanese  artists." 


BARBARIC  ART.  267 

see,  curiously  enough,  a  change  of  taste  carrying  us 
back  to  those  types  of  art  which  were  general  in  the 
days  of  coercive  rule.  First  of  all  it  is  shown  in  that 
part  of  the  social  organization  which  everywhere  and 
always  adheres  most  strongly  to  the  old — the  ecclesi- 
astical. The  internal  walls  of  cathedrals,  which  dur- 
ing modern  days  were  plain,  have  been  in  some  cases 
re-covered  with  tawdry  coloured  patterns;  and  now 
the  ecclesiastics,  having  got  the  upper  hand,  are  lin- 
ing the  dome  of  St.  Paul's  in  the  ancient  style  with 
mosaic  pictures.  Everywhere  Protestant  simplicity 
is  being  replaced  by  Catholic  elaboration  in  the  altar 
and  its  reredos,  full  of  sculptured  detail;  and  the 
vestments  of  ecclesiastics  themselves  have  gone  back 
to  the  old  type — robes  made  weighty  with  glittering 
ornaments:  all  suggestive  of  medieval  and  Oriental 
pomp. 

A  kindred  reversion  characterizes  our  art-peri- 
odicals. Many  of  the  things  they  offer  for  admira- 
tion suggest,  at  first,  that  there  is  taking  place  a  vio- 
lent reaction  from  the  pursuit  of  the  beautiful  to  the 
pursuit  of  the  ugly;  but  contemplation  proves  that 
the  ugly  is  usually  the  medieval.  Here  we  see  this  or 
that  artist's  designs  for  country-houses  and  cottages, 
the  merit  of  which  is  that  they  recall  the  buildings 
of  past  centuries.  And  elsewhere  are  views  of  in- 
teriors containing  furniture  utterly  comfortless  in 
make,  but  displaying  one  or  other  degree  of  antiquity 


268  BARBARIC  ART. 

in  style,  and  often  archaic — often  barbaric,  that  is. 
In  many  cases  grace  and  beauty  have  been  positively 
tabooed. 

The  same  retrogressive  taste  various  other  peri- 
odicals display.  Besides  archaic  decoration  we  see, 
on  the  covers  of  magazines,  a  style  of  lettering  dis- 
tinguished from  styles  prevailing  a  generation  ago 
by  its  intentionally  malformed  letters,  by  the  com- 
bining of  letters  of  different  sizes  in  the  same  word, 
and  by  other  distortions  reminding  us  of  such  as 
might  be  found  in  the  nursery:  the  irregular  draw- 
ings of  children  and  those  of  barbarians  being  natu- 
rally akin.  It  may  be  remarked,  too,  that  in  books 
the  titles  are  now  frequently  placed  close  to  the  top 
and  even  in  one  corner — a  deliberate  abandonment 
of  anything  like  symmetry:  not  that  abandonment 
of  symmetry  which  desire  for  the  picturesque  sug- 
gests, but  that  abandonment  of  it  which  implies  dis- 
regard of  proportion — lack  of  that  perception  of  fit- 
ness which  the  geometrical  form  of  a  book  dictates. 
Along  with  this  has  to  be  named  the  reversion  to 
18th  century  type,  giving  to  numerous  books  nowT 
published  the  aspect  of  books  published  in  Johnson's 
day.  ISTay,  there  has  been  even  a  more  marked  re- 
version, as  witness  the  much-lauded  typography  in- 
troduced by  the  late  Mr.  William  Morris,  who  took 
as  his  model  the  15th  century  Roman  type,  aim1  even 
in  part  Gothic  type,  and  who,  in  justifying  one  of  his 


BARBARIC  ART.  269 

usages,  says — "  This  rule  is  never  departed  from  in 
mediaeval  books,  written  or  printed." 

As  displaying  the  process  of  re-barbarization  in 
art  carried  still  further,  must  be  added  the  going  back 
to  hand-made  paper,  often  specified  in  advertise- 
ments as  a  trait  of  superiority.  And  then  the  final 
abomination  accompanying  this,  we  have  in  the 
leaves  with  rough  ("  deckled")  edges.  A  trait  alto- 
gether ugly  and  extremely  inconvenient,  impeding 
as  it  does  the  turning  over  of  leaves,  is  named  as  an 
attraction  by  publishers,  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  it  gratifies  this  feeling  which  re-barbarization 
everywhere  discloses  !  'Nslj  they  go  further.  I  learn 
from  a  paper-maker  that  "  some  publishers  have  the 
smooth  edges  [where  the  folding  necessitates  these] 
cut  roughly  with  a  blunt  knife  in  order  to  imitate  " 
"  the  natural  '  deckle.'  " 


VACCINATION. 

"  When  once  you  interfere  with  the  order  of  Na- 
ture there  is  no  knowing  where  the  results  will  end," 
was  the  remark  made  in  my  presence  by  a  distin- 
guished biologist.  There  immediately  escaped  from 
him  an  expression  of  vexation  at  his  lack  of  reticence, 
for  he  saw  the  various  uses  I  might  make  of  the  ad- 
mission. 

Jenner  and  his  disciples  have  assumed  that  when 
the  vaccine  virus  has  passed  through  a  patient's  sys- 
tem he  is  safe,  or  comparatively  safe,  against  small- 
pox, and  that  there  the  matter  ends.  I  will  not  here 
say  anything  for  or  against  this  assumption.*  I 
merely  propose  to  show  that  there  the  matter  does  not 
end.  The  interference  with  the  order  of  Nature  has 
various  sequences  other  than  that  counted  upon. 
Some  have  been  made  known. 

A  Parliamentary  Return  issued  in  1880    (No. 

*  Except,  indeed,  by  quoting  the  statement  of  a  well-known 
man,  Mr.  Kegan  Paul  the  publisher,  respecting  his  own  experi- 
ence. In  his  Memories  (pp.  260-1)  he  says,  respecting  his  small- 
pox when  adult,  "I  had  had  small-pox  when  a  child,  in  spite  of 
vaccination,  and  had  been  vaccinated  but  ;i  short  time  before.  I 
am  the  third  of  my  own  immediate  family  who  have  had  small- 
pox twice,  and  with  whom  vaccination  has  always  taken." 
270 


VACCINATION.  271 

392)  shows  that  comparing  the  quinquennial  periods 
1847-1851  and  1874-1878  there  was  in  the  latter  a 
diminution  in  the  deaths  from  all  causes  of  infants 
under  one  year  old  of  6,600  per  million  births  per 
annum;  while  the  mortality  caused  by  eight  speci- 
fied diseases,  either  directly  communicable  or  exacer- 
bated by  the  effects  of  vaccination,  increased  from 
20,524  to  41,353  per  million  births  per  annum — 
more  than  double.  It  is  clear  that  far  more  were 
killed  by  these  other  diseases  than  were  saved  from 
small-pox.* 

To  the  communication  of  diseases  thus  demon- 
strated, must  be  added  accompanying  effects.  It  is 
held  that  the  immunity  produced  by  vaccination  im- 
plies some  change  in  the  components  of  the  body: 
a  necessary  assumption.  But  now  if  the  substances 
composing  the  body,  solid  or  liquid  or  both,  have 
been  so  modified  as  to  leave  them  no  longer  liable  to 
small-pox,  is  the  modification  otherwise  inoperative? 
Will  any  one  dare  to  say  that  it  produces  no  further 
effect  than  that  of  shielding  the  patient  from  a  par- 

*  This  was  in  the  days  of  arm-to-arm  vaccination,  when  medi- 
cal men  were  certain  that  other  diseases  (syphilis,  for  instance) 
could  not  be  communicated  through  the  vaccine  virus.  Any  one 
who  looks  into  the  Transactions  of  the  Epidemiological  Society 
of  some  thirty  years  ago,  will  find  that  they  were  suddenly  con- 
vinced to  the  contrary  by  a  dreadful  case  of  wholesale  syphiliza- 
tion.  In  these  days  of  calf -lymph  vaccination  such  dangers  are 
excluded :  not  that  of  bovine  tuberculosis  however.  But  I  name 
the  fact  as  showing  what  amount  of  faith  is  to  be  placed  in  medi- 
cal opinion. 


272  VACCINATION. 

ticular  disease  %  You  cannot  change  the  constitution 
in  relation  to  one  invading  agent  and  leave  it  un- 
changed in  regard  to  all  other  invading  agents. 
What  must  the  change  be  ?  There  are  cases  of  un- 
healthy persons  in  whom  a  serious  disease,  as  typhoid 
fever,  is  followed  by  improved  health.  But  these  are 
not  normal  cases;  if  they  were  a  healthy  person 
would  become  more  healthy  by  having  a  succession  of 
diseases.  Hence,  as  a  constitution  modified  by  vac- 
cination is  not  made  more  able  to  resist  perturbing 
influences  in  general,  it  must  be  made  less  able. 
Heat  and  cold  and  wet  and  atmospheric  changes  tend 
ever  to  disturb  the  balance,  as  do  also  various  foods, 
excessive  exertion,  mental  strain.  We  have  no  means 
of  measuring  alterations  in  resisting  power,  and 
hence  they  commonly  pass  unremarked.  There  are, 
however,  evidences  of  a  general  relative  debility. 
Measles  is  a  severer  disease  than  it  used  to  be,  and 
deaths  from  it  are  very  numerous.  Influenza  yields 
proof.  Sixty  years  ago,  when  at  long  intervals  an 
epidemic  occurred,  it  seized  but  few,  was  not  severe, 
and  left  no  serious  sequelae;  now  it  is  permanently 
established,  affects  multitudes  in  extreme  forms,  and 
often  leaves  damaged  constitutions.  The  disease  is 
the  same,  but  there  is  less  ability  to  withstand  it. 

There  are  other  significant  facts.  It  is  a  familiar 
biological  truth  that  the  organs  of  sense  and  the  teeth 
arise  out  of  the  dermal  layer  of  the  embryo.     Hence 


VACCINATION.  273 

abnormalities  affect  all  of  them:  blue-eyed  cats  are 
deaf  and  hairless  dogs  have  imperfect  teeth.  {Ori- 
gin of  Species,  Chap.  I.)  The  like  holds  of  consti- 
tutional abnormalities  caused  by  disease.  Syphilis 
in  its  earlier  stages  is  a  skin-disease.  When  it  is  in- 
herited the  effects  are  malformation  of  teeth  and  in 
later  years  iritis  (inflammation  of  the  iris).  Kin- 
dred relations  hold  with  other  skin-diseases :  instance 
the  fact  that  scarlet  fever  is  often  accompanied  by 
loosening  of  the  teeth,  and  the  fact  that  with  measles 
often  go  disorders,  sometimes  temporary  sometimes 
permanent,  of  both  eyes  and  ears.  May  it  not  be 
thus  with  another  skin-disease — that  which  vaccina- 
tion gives  ?  If  so,  we  have  an  explanation  of  the 
frightful  degeneracy  of  teeth  among  young  people  in 
recent  times;  and  we  need  not  wonder  at  the  preva- 
lence of  weak  and  defective  eyes  among  them.  Be 
these  suggestions  true  or  not,  one  thing  is  certain : — 
the  assumption  that  vaccination  changes  the  constitu- 
tion in  relation  to  small-pox  and  does  not  otherwise 
change  it  is  sheer  folly.* 

*  A  high  authority,  Sir  James  Paget,  in  his  Lectures  (4th  ed. 
p.  39)  says: — "After  the  vaccine  and  other  infectious  or  inocula- 
ble  diseases,  it  is,  most  probably,  not  the  tissues  alone,  but  the 
blood  as  much  or  more  than  they,  in  which  the  altered  state  is 
maintained;  and  in  many  cases  it  would  seem  that,  whatever 
materials  are  added  to  the  blood,  the  stamp  once  impressed  by 
one  of  these  specific  diseases  is  retained."  Here  is  a  distinct  ad- 
mission, or  rather  assertion,  that  the  constitution  is  changed.  Is 
it  changed  for  the  better  ?    If  not,  it  must  be  changed  for  the  worse. 


PEKVEKTED  HISTOEY. 

I  believe  it  was  a  French  king  who,  wishing  to 
consult  some  historical  work,  called  to  his  librarian: 
— "  Bring  me  my  liar."  The  characterization  was 
startling  but  not  undeserved.  The  more  we  look 
round  at  the  world's  affairs  and  the  statements  made 
about  them  by  this  or  that  class  of  people,  the  more 
we  are  impressed  by  the  difficulty,  and  in  some  cases 
the  impossibility,  of  getting  at  the  essential  facts. 

I  am  prompted  to  say  this  by  an  extremely  grave 
perversion  of  history,  known  to  comparatively  few, 
which  I  am  able  to  prove  in  the  most  positive  manner 
— a  perversion  which,  grave  though  it  is,  would,  but 
for  an  unlikely  incident,  have  been  incorporated  in 
all  future  accounts  of  the  relations  between  England 
and  the  United  States. 

Early  in  18G9  the  unfriendly  feeling  between  the 
two  countries  which  had  continued  since  the  war  of 
secession,  was  for  a  time  much  exacerbated.  From 
the  outset  we  had  been  reviled  for  not  sympathizing 
with  the  North  in  its  Anti-Slavery  war  with  the 
South.  It  had  been  concluded  that  as  consumers  of 
274 


PERVERTED  HISTORY.  275 

cotton  our  interests  were  with  the  South,  and  that  we 
should  necessarily,  therefore,  go  with  the  South ;  and 
in  pursuance  of  this  conclusion,  orators  and  journal- 
ises had  vied  with  one  another  in  their  condemna- 
tions of  us. 

As  foregoing  pages  have  proved,  I  am  not  an  un- 
qualified admirer  of  England  and  English  doings; 
but  I  was  indignant  that  when  England  had,  at  the 
outset,  shown  more  sympathy  for  the  Northern 
States  than  she  had  ever  shown  to  any  other  people 
— had  exhibited  a  unanimity  of  feeling  unparalleled 
in  respect  of  any  political  matter,  domestic  or  for- 
eign— there  should  be  perpetually  vented  upon  her 
reproaches  such  as  might  fitly  have  been  called  forth 
by  behaviour  the  reverse  of  that  which  she  displayed. 
One  result  was  that  when,  in  1869,  the  political  hori- 
zon to  the  West  was  looking  very  dark,  I  was  prompt- 
ed to  show  the  Northerners  how  wrong  they  had  been 
in  supposing  that  there  originally  existed  among  us 
that  unfriendliness  to  them  which  we  subsequently 
displayed. 

I  sent  my  secretary  to  the  British  Museum  to 
look  up  the  evidence  contained  in  the  London  daily 
and  weekly  press,  immediately  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  war  and  immediately  after.  My  remem- 
brance was  absolutely  verified.  Extracts  proved 
that  with  one  accord  our  journals  of  all  parties — 
Tory,  Whig,  Kadical — condemned  in  strong  terms 


276  PERVERTED  HISTORY. 

the  action  of  the  South.  There  were  denunciatory 
passages  from  the  Times  of  Dec.  5  and  11,  1860,  and 
Jan.  4,  1861;  from  the  Daily  News,  Jan.  2,  1861; 
from  the  Morning  Herald,  Dec.  27,  1860;  from  the 
Morning  Post,  Dec.  5,  1860 ;  from  the  Daily  Tele- 
graph, Dec.  3,  1860;  from  the  Morning  Star,  Nov. 
27,  1860;  from  the  Express,  Nov.  20,  1860;  from 
the  Sun,  Nov.  19,  1860;  from  the  Standard,  Nov. 
24,  1860;  from  the  Spectator,  Dec.  1,  I860;  and 
from  the  Saturday  Review,  Dec.  29,  1860. 

Even  stronger  condemnations  were  expressed 
after  the  declaration  of  war.  Witness  the  Times  of 
Jan.  18  and  19,  1861;  the  Daily  News  of  Jan.  21; 
the  Morning  Post  of  Jan.  9  and  12 ;  the  Daily  Tele- 
graph of  Jan.  19  and  15;  the  Morning  Herald  of 
Jan.  28;  the  Morning  Star  of  Jan.  15;  the  Sun  of 
Jan.  19  ;  the  Globe  of  Jan.  14  and  18  ;  the  Standard 
of  Jan.  19  and  May  2;  the  Express  of  Jan.  24;  the 
Spectator  of  Jan.  5  and  26;  the  Saturday  Review 
of  Jan.  12  and  Feb.  2.  Not  a  single  expression  of 
sympathy  with  the  South  was  discovered.  I  heard 
afterwards  that  in  one  monthly  magazine,  Blach- 
wood's,  there  was  a  dissentient  note,  and  this  was 
considered  a  disgrace. 

The  above-dated  extracts  I  embodied  in  a  letter 
to  my  friend  Professor  Youmans,.and  requested  him 
to  publish  i(  in  the  New  York  Tribune',  hoping  thus 
to  mitigate  American  hostility.     The  letter  was  set 


PERVERTED  HISTORY.  277 

up  in  the  Tribune-ofiice  and  a  proof  sent  to  me  by 
my  friend,  with  a  request  to  withdraw  the  letter.  He 
said  that  adherents  of  mine  who  had  seen  it,  were 
unanimous  in  thinking  that  it  would  do  no  good  and 
would  be  mischievous  by  tying  their  hands.  Though 
I  had  expressed  indifference  to  any  evil  which  might 
fall  on  me  personally,  I  was,  by  this  statement  that  no 
good  would  be  done,  induced  to  yield,  and  the  letter  was 
not  published  at  that  time.  Some  years  afterwards, 
however,  when  the  ill-feeling  had  diminished,  the 
London  correspondent  of  the  Tribune,  to  whom  I 
mentioned  the  matter,  asked  me  to  let  him  have  the 
letter  for  publication.  I  did  so  and  it  eventually 
appeared.  There  was  an  accompanying  leading  arti- 
cle referring  in  a  slighting  way  to  the  evidence  it 
contained ;  and,  as  I  gathered,  though  some  effect 
was  produced,  it  was  but  small.  Demonstration  fails 
to  change  established  beliefs. 

Several  motives  have  prompted  this  narrative. 
One  is  that  though  I  have  included  in  an  appendix  to 
my  Autobiography  a  reproduction  of  the  above-de- 
scribed letter  to  the  Tribune,  yet  since  most  readers 
never  look  at  appendices,  the  rectification  it  contains 
may  have  little  effect.  Hence  I  have  decided  to  set 
forth  here  the  circumstances  under  which  the  letter 
was  written,  and  to  give  the  dates  of  the  newspapers 
containing  the  passages  quoted  in  it.  Strangely 
enough,  even  among  ourselves  the  growth  of  the  an- 


278  PERVERTED  HISTORY. 

tagonism,  caused  by  undeserved  vilification  of  us, 
seems  to  have  obliterated  all  recollection  of  the  origi- 
nal concurrence. 

What  must  we  think  about  historical  statements 
at  large  ?  When  twelve  of  England's  chief  newspa- 
pers, representing  all  parties,  joined  in  a  chorus  of 
condemnation — when  no  newspaper  was  found  which 
failed  thus  to  join  in  reprobating  the  South — a  con- 
clusive proof  of  sympathetic  feeling  with  the  North 
was  given.  Yet  in  the  North  this  conclusive  proof 
was  followed  by  diatribes  against  our  assumed  sym- 
pathy with  the  South.  If  this  extreme  perversion  was 
possible  in  the  days  of  a  cheap  .Press  and  easy  com- 
munication, what  was  not  possible  in  past  days  when 
the  means  of  spreading  information  were  smaller  and 
the  hatreds  greater  ?  Beyond  accounts  of  kings' 
reigns,  of  battles,  and  of  incidents  named  in  the 
chronicles  of  all  the  nations  concerned,  we  have  noth- 
ing to  depend  on  but  treaties  made  to  be  broken,  de- 
spatches of  corrupt  and  lying  officials,  gossiping  let- 
ters of  courtiers,  and  so  forth.  How  from  these  ma- 
terials shall  we  distil  the  truth  ?  Judging  from  this 
recent  case  in  which  a  grave  misunderstanding  be- 
tween two  nations  was  caused  by  complete  inversion 
of  the  evidence,  we  must  say  that  nothing  positive  can 
be  inferred  from  the  mass  of  passions,  prejudices, 
interests,  superstitions  which  moved  men  in  past 
times. 


PERVERTED  HISTORY.  .  279 

The  things  that  we  can  be  certain  of  are  happily 
the  only  things  worth  knowing.  Through  all  these 
petitions,  records,  despatches,  letters,  &c,  as  well  as 
through  the  laws  that  remain  in  force  and  those  that 
have  fallen  into  abeyance,  there  emerge  numerous 
facts  which  there  is  no  intention  of  telling — facts 
concerning  the  social  classes,  social  organization,  so- 
cial customs,  arrangements,  changes:  there  emerge 
the  data  for  Sociology,  to  which  History,  as  common- 
ly understood,  is  merely  the  handmaid. 


WHAT    SHOULD    THE    SCEPTIC    SAY    TO 
BELIEVERS  ? 

To  one  who  has  relinquished  the  creed  of  his 
fathers  there  comes  from  time  to  time  the  question 
— What  shall  I  say  to  those  who  believe  as  of  old  ? 
To  answer  is  difficult,  since  the  reasons  for  and  against 
this  or  that  line  of  conduct  are,  many  and  variable. 
Of  course  sincerity  must  be  the  dominant  guide ;  but 
sincerity  has  sundry  forms.  There  is  an  aggressive 
sincerity  which  seizes  every  occasion  for  trying  to 
change  others'  views.  There  is  a  sincerity,  less  ag- 
gressive, which  is  ready  to  discuss,  and  to  utter  ad- 
verse beliefs  candidly.  There  is  a  sincerity  which 
enters  with  reluctance  into  arguments  that  disclose 
changed  convictions.  And  there  is  a  sincerity  which 
is  silent  and  even  shuns  the  utterance  of  opinions  at 
variance  with  those  that  are  current.  What  attitude 
to  take  under  these  or  those  conditions  is  often  a 
query  not  to  be  answered  in  a  satisfactory  way. 

In  ni any  cases  the  Agnostic  is  misled  by  the  as- 
sumption that  a  secular  creed  may  with  advantage 
forthwith  replace  the,  creed  distinguished  as  sacred. 
280 


WHAT  SHOULD  THE  SCEPTIC  SAY  TO  BELIEVERS?  281 

That  right  guidance  may  be  furnished  by  a  system  of 
natural  ethics,  is  a  belief  usually  followed  by  the  cor- 
ollary that  it  needs  only  to  develop  such  a  system 
and  the  required  self-control  will  result.  But  calm 
contemplation  of  men's  natures  and  doings  dissipates 
this  corollary.  It  assumes  a  general  intelligence  ca- 
pable of  seeing  the  beneficial  outcome  of  certain 
modes  of  conduct  currently  recognized  as- right,  and 
the  evil  outcome  of  opposite  modes  of  conduct;  and 
it  assumes  that,  having  perceived  the  good  results  of 
this  kind  and  the  bad  results  of  that  kind,  men  will 
adopt  the  one  and  reject  the  other.  But  neither  as- 
sumption is  true.  The  average  intellect  can  not  grasp 
a  demonstration,  even  when  the  matter  is  concrete, 
and  still  less  when  the  matter  is  abstract.  It  cannot 
bear  in  mind  the  successive  propositions  but  collapses 
under  the  weight  of  them  before  reaching  the  con- 
clusion. Dogmatic  teaching  is  alone  effective  with 
such,  and  even  this  often  fails.  The  dogma  "  Hon- 
esty is  the  best  policy,"  is  commonly  inoperative  on 
the  thief,  since  he  always  expects  to  escape  detection. 
Further,  the  hope  that  average  men  may  be  swayed 
by  the  contemplation  of  advantage  to  society  is  utter- 
ly utopir.n.  In  the  minds  of  those  who  form  the 
slum-population  and  most  of  those  immediately  above 
them,  will  arise  the  thought — "  I  don't  care  a  damn 
for  society."    And  at  the  other  end  of  the  social  scale, 

among  those  whose  lives  alternate  between  club-rooms 
19 


282  WHAT  SHOULD  THE  SCEPTIC  SAY  TO  BELIEVERS! 

and  game-preserves,  there  will  arise,  if  not  so  coarse- 
ly expressed  a  thought,  yet  the  thought — "  Society  as 
it  is,  serves  my  purpose  very  well,  and  that's  enough 
for  me."  Ethical  teaching,  however  conclusive,  has 
no  effect  on  natures  which  have  made  little  approach 
towards  harmony  with  it.  Only  the  few  who  are  in 
a  measure  organically  moral,  will  benefit  by  its  in- 
junctions; reinforcing  those  beliefs  which  their  con- 
duct ordinarily  betrays.  Thus  the  Agnostic  who 
thinks  he  can  provide  forthwith  adequate  guidance 
by  setting  forth  a  natural  code  of  right  conduct,  duly 
illustrated,  is  under  an  illusion.  By  all  means  let 
us  have  a  tracing  down  of  morals  to  the  laws  of  life, 
individual  and  social,  and  a  continual  emphasizing 
of  the  truths  reached ;  but  it  must  go  along  with  the 
understanding  that  only  as  the  discipline  of  a  peace- 
ful social  life  slowly  remoulds  men's  natures,  will 
appreciable  effects  be  produced. 

"  Surely  this  amounts  to  saying  that  the  old  creed 
should  be  left  in  possession  ?  Surely  if  the  truths  of 
natural  ethics  will,  for  the  present  at  least,  be  unin- 
fluential,  those  equivalent  truths  which  have  a  reli- 
gious sanction  should  be  perpetually  preached  ?  Sure- 
ly it  is  wrong  to  shake  confidence  in  a  theology  which 
now  exercises  control  over  men  ?  "  The  reply  is  that 
unfortunately  the  religious  creed  appears  to  be 
scarcely  more  operative  than  the  ethical  creed  would 
be.     It  needs  but  to  glance  over  the  world  and  con- 


WHAT  SHOULD  THE  SCEPTIC  SAY  TO  BELIEVERS?  283 

template  the  doings  of  Christians  everywhere,  to  be 
amazed  at  the  ineffectiveness  of  .the  current  theology. 
Or  it  needs  only  to  look  back  over  past  centuries  at 
the  iniquities  alike  of  populace,  nobles,  kings,  and 
popes,  to  perceive  an  almost  incomprehensible  futil- 
ity of  the  beliefs  everywhere  held  and  perpetually 
insisted  upon:  horrors  like  those  which  Dante  de- 
scribed notwithstanding.  If  this  lack  of  results  be 
ascribed  to  the  sale  of  indulgences  and  the  assumed 
priestly  power  of  absolution,  then  a  glance  at  the 
condition  of  England  after  Protestantism  had  been 
established,  proves  that  where  such  perverting  influ- 
ences were  inoperative,  the  fear  of  hell  and  the  hope 
of  heaven  influenced  men's  actions  in  an  incredibly 
small  degree.  These  threats  and  promises  of  punish- 
ments and  rewards,  appear  in  most  cases  to  have  done 
little  more  to  guide  men's  conduct  than  would  be 
done  by  a  series  of  propositions  showing  that  moral 
conduct  is,  in  the  end,  beneficial  alike  individually 
and  socially.  Something  rudely  analogous  to  the 
law  in  the  physical  world  that  attraction  varies  in- 
versely as  the  square  of  the  distance,  seems  to  hold 
in  the  moral  world ;  so  that  proximate  pleasures  and 
pains,  even  trifling,  influence  actions  more  than  im- 
measurably greater  pleasures  and  pains  that  are  re- 
mote. In  a  small  way  we  see  this  in  the  conduct  of 
the  toper,  who  yields  to  the  promise  of  instant  grati- 
fication from  more  drink,  notwithstanding  the  pros- 


284  WHAT  SHOULD  THE  SCEPTIC  SAY  TO  BELIEVERS? 

j)ect  of  to-morrow's  headache  and  sickness  joined 
with  domestic  dissension  and  public  discredit.  Dis- 
tant evils  must  be  vividly  represented  before  they 
can  counter-balance  enjoyments  that  are  immediate; 
and  in  most  people  the  representative  faculty  is  fee- 
ble. Here  and  there  are  some  of  superior  natures  on 
whom  the  religious  sanctions  and  reprobations  so  far 
reinforce  natural  promptings  as  to  have  beneficial 
effects.  But  if  we  recall  the  transgressions  of  adul- 
terating tradesmen,  bribed  agents,  dishonest  lawyers, 
corrupt  financiers,  &c,  we  see  that  the  alternative 
prospects  of  eternal  torture  and  eternal  bliss  sway 
them  but  little.  So  that  ill-grounded  as  may  be  the 
Agnostic's  hope  that  a  system  of  natural  ethics  will  at 
once  yield  good  guidance,  it  must  not  be  inferred  that 
endeavours  to  substitute  such  a  system  for  the  super- 
natural system  with  its  penalties  and  rewards,  will 
injure  the  average  of  men — may  indeed  benefit  them, 
by  showing  the  agreement  between  the  naturally  de- 
rived sanctions  and  most  of  those  supposed  to  be  su- 
pernaturally  derived. 

Moreover  there  are  cases  presenting  to  the  Ag- 
nostic positive  reasons  for  expressing  his  changed 
beliefs.  For  while  on  the  great  mass  of  people  the 
current  creed  appears  to  be  beneficially  operative  to  a 
very  small  degree  if  at  all,  there  are  not  a  few  on 
whom  it  is  disastrously  operative,  causing  by  its 
threats  great  misery.    To  some  who  arc  sensitive  and 


WHAT  SHOULD  THE  SCEPTIC  SAY  TO  BELIEVERS?  285 

have  active  imaginations  the  prospect  of  eternal  tor- 
ture comes  home  with  terrible  effect.  Numbers  of 
them  continue  throughout  life  to  be  troubled  about 
their  future  fates ;  and  in  old  age,  when  flagging  vital- 
ity brings  more  or  less  mental  depression,  this  depres- 
sion takes  the  shape  of  fears  concerning  endless  pun- 
ishment to  be  presently  borne.  In  past  times,  when 
"  the  wrath  to  come  "  was  more  strongly  emphasized 
than  now,  horrible  conceptions  must  have  brought 
wretchedness  to  not  a  few;  and  even  at  present  the 
credulous  to  whom  there  is  given  some  work  like  one 
I  have  in  hand,  Hell  opened  to  Christians,  giving, 
along  with  its  denunciations,  vivid  representations  of 
various  tortures,  are  sure  to  have  days  and  nights 
filled  with  ideas  of  sufferings  without  end.  To  all 
such  the  man  who  has  rejected  this  dreadful  creed 
may  fitly  give  reasons  for  doing  the  like:  pointing 
out  the  blasphemy  of  supposing  that  the  Power  mani- 
fested in  fifty  million  suns  with  their  attendant 
worlds,  has  a  nature  which  in  a  human  being  we 
should  shrink  from  with  horror. 

On  the  other  hand  we  meet  with  those  who,  more 
fortunately  dispositioned,  dwell  rather  upon  the 
promised  future  happiness;  and,  by  the  hope  of  it, 
are  consoled  under  the  evils  they  have  to  bear.  The 
prospect  of  heaven  makes  life  tolerable  to  many  who 
would  else  find  it  intolerable.  In  some  whose  shat- 
tered constitutions  and  perpetual  pains,  caused  per- 


286  WHAT  SHOULD  THE  SCEPTIC  SAY  TO  BELIEVERS? 

liaps  by  undue  efforts  for  the  benefit  of  dependents, 
the  daily  thought  of  a  compensating  future  is  the 
sole  assuaging  consciousness.  Others  there  are  who, 
borne  down  in  spirit  by  some  grave  misunderstand- 
ing, look  forward  to  a  time  when  everything  will  be 
made  clear  and  their  grief  changed  into  joy.  Con- 
stant ill-treatment  from  a  domestic  tyrant  brings  to 
not  a  few  unceasing  miseries,  which  are  mitigated 
only  by  the  belief  that  they  will  hereafter  give  place 
to  a  state  of  bliss.  And  there  are  many  who  stagger 
on  under  the  exhausting  burden  of  daily  duties,  ful- 
filled without  thanks  and  without  sympathy,  who  are 
enabled  to  bear  their  ills  by  the  conviction  that  after 
this  life  will  come  a  life  free  from  pains  and  weari- 
ness. Nothing  but  evil  can  follow  a  change  in  the 
creed  of  such ;  and  unless  cruelly  thoughtless  the  Ag- 
nostic will  carefully  shun  discussion  of  religious  sub- 
jects with  them. 

What  course  to  take  is  thus,  as  said  at  first,  a 
question  to  be  answered  only  after  consideration  of 
the  special  circumstances.  The  many  who  are  reck- 
less even  of  themselves  and  brutally  regardless  of 
human  welfare,  may  be  passed  by;  unless,  indeed, 
some  good  may  be  done  by  proving  that  there  are 
natural  penalties  which  in  large  measure  coincide 
with  alleged  supernatural  penalties.  On  the  other 
hand  those  on  whom  fears  of  eternal  punishment 
weigh  heavily,  may  fitly  be  shown  that  merciless  as  is 


WHAT  SHOULD  THE  SCEPTIC  SAY  TO  BELIEVERS?  287 

the  Cosmic  process  worked  out  by  an  Unknown  Pow- 
er, yet  vengeance  is  nowhere  to  be  found  in  it. 
Meanwhile,  sympathy  commands  silence  towards  all 
who,  suffering  under  the  ills  of  life,  derive  comfort 
from  their  creed.  While  it  forbids  the  dropping  of 
hints  that  may  shake  their  faiths,  it  suggests  the  eva- 
sion of  questions  which  cannot  be  discussed  without 
unsettling  their  hopes. 


ULTIMATE  QUESTIONS. 

Old  people  must  have  many  reflections  in  com- 
mon. Doubtless  one  which  I  have  now  in  mind  is  very 
familiar.  Eor  years  past,  when  watching  the  unfold- 
ing buds  in  the  Spring  there  has  arisen  the  thought — - 
Shall  I  ever  again  see  the  buds  unfold  ?  Shall  I  ever 
again  be  awakened  at  dawn  by  the  song  of  the 
thrush?  Now  that  the  end  is  not  likely  to  be  long 
postponed,  there  results  an  increasing  tendency  to 
meditate  upon  ultimate  questions. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  those  who  have  re- 
linquished the  creed  of  Christendom  occupy  them- 
selves exclusively  with  material  interests  and  mate- 
rial activities — thinking  nothing  of  the  How  and  the 
Why,  of  the  Whence  and  the  Whither.  It  may  be 
so  with  some  of  the  uncultured,  but  it  is  certainly  not 
so  with  many  of  the  cultured.  In  the  minds  of  those 
intimately  known  to  me,  the  "  riddle  of  existence  " 
fills  spaces  far  larger  than  the  current  conception 
fills  in  the  minds  of  men  in  general. 

After  studying  primitive  beliefs,  and  finding  that 
there  is  no  origin  for  the  idea  of  an  after-life  save 
288 


ULTIMATE  QUESTIONS.  289 

the  conclusion  which  the  savage  draws  from  the  no- 
tion suggested  by  dreams,  of  a  wandering  double 
which  comes  back  on  awaking  and  wThich  goes  away 
for  an  indefinite  time  at  death;  and  after  contem- 
plating the  inscrutable  relation  between  brain  and 
consciousness,  and  finding  that  we  can  get  no  evi- 
dence of  the  existence  of  the  last  without  the  activity 
of  the  first,  we  seem  obliged  to  relinquish  the  thought 
that  consciousness  continues  after  physical  organiza- 
tion has  become  inactive. 

But  it  seems  a  strange  and  repugnant  conclusion 
that  with  the  cessation  of  consciousness  at  death, 
there  ceases  to  be  any  knowledge  of  having  existed. 
With  his  last  breath  it  becomes  to  each  the  same 
thing  as  though  he  had  never  lived. 

And  then  the  consciousness  itself — what  is  it 
during  the  time  that  it  continues  ?  And  what  be- 
comes of  it  when  it  ends  ?  We  can  only  infer  that 
it  is  a  specialized  and  individualized  form  of  that 
Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy  which  transcends  both 
our  knowledge  and  our  imagination;  and  that  at 
death  its  elements  lapse  into  the  Infinite  and  Eternal 
Energy  whence  they  wrere  derived. 

Concerning  the  outer  world  as  concerning  the 
inner  world,  those  who  have  not  satisfied  themselves 
with  traditional  explanations,  continually  have 
thrust  upon  them  the   same  questions — trite  ques- 


290  ULTIMATE  QUESTIONS. 

tions  concerning  the  origin,  meaning,  and  purpose, 
alike  of  the  Universe  as  a  whole  and  of  all  its  living 
contents,  down  to  the  microscopic  forms  of  which 
earth,  air,  and  water  are  full.  On  the  Agnostic 
these  questions  are  continually  forced;  and  continu- 
ally he  sees  the  futility  of  all  efforts  to  find  consist- 
ent answers  to  them. 

There  is  one  aspect  of  the  Great  Enigma  to  which 
little  attention  seems  given,  but  which  has  of  late 
years  more  frequently  impressed  me.  I  refer  not  to 
the  problems  which  all  concrete  existences,  from  suns 
down  to  microbes,  present,  but  to  those  presented  by 
the  universal  form  under  which  these  exist — the  phe- 
nomena of  Space. 

In  youth  we  pass  by  without  surprise  the  geomet- 
rical truths  set  down  in  our  Euclids.  It  suffices  to 
learn  that  in  a  right-angled  triangle  the  square  of  the 
hypothenuse  is  equal  to  the  sum  of  the  squares  of  the 
other  two  sides:  it  is  demonstrable,  and  that  is 
enough.  Concerning  the  multitudes  of  remarkable 
relations  among  lines  and  among  spaces  very  few 
ever  ask — Why  are  they  so  ?  Perhaps  the  question 
may  in  later  years  be  raised,  as  it  has  been  in  myself, 
by  some  of  the  more  conspicuously  marvellous  truths 
now  grouped  under  the  title  of  "  the  Geometry  of 
Position."  Many  of  these  are  so  astounding  that  but 
for  the  presence  of  ocular  proof  they  would  be  in- 
credible ;  and  by  their  marvellousness,  as  well  as  by 


ULTIMATE  QUESTIONS.  291 

their  beauty,  they  serve,  in  some  minds  at  least,  to 
raise  the  unanswerable  question — How  come  there  to 
exist  among  the  parts  of  this  seemingly-structureless 
vacancy  wre  call  Space,  these  strange  relations  %  How 
does  it  happen  that  the  blank  form  of  things  presents 
us  with  truths  as  incomprehensible  as  do  the  things  it 
contains  ? 

Beyond  the  reach  of  our  intelligence  as  are  the 
mysteries  of  the  objects  known  by  our  senses,  those 
presented  in  this  universal  matrix  are,  if  we  may  so 
say,  still  further  beyond  the  reach  of  our  intelli- 
gence ;  for  whereas  those  of  the  one  kind  may  be,  and 
are,  thought  of  by  many  as  explicable  on  the  hypoth- 
esis of  Creation,  and  by  the  rest  on  the  hypothesis  of 
Evolution,  those  of  the  other  kind  cannot  by  either  be 
regarded  as  thus  explicable.  Theist  and  Agnostic 
must  agree  in  recognizing  the  properties  of  Space  as 
inherent,  eternal,  uncreated — as  anteceding  all  crea- 
tion, if  creation  has  taken  place,  and  all  evolution,  if 
evolution  has  taken  place. 

Hence,  could  we  penetrate  the  mysteries  of  exist- 
ence, there  would  remain  still  more  transcendent 
mysteries.  That  which  can  be  thought  of  neither  as 
made  nor  evolved  presents  us  with  facts  the  origin  of 
which  is  even  more  remote  from  conceivability  than 
is  the  origin  of  the  facts  presented  by  visible  and 
tangible  things.  It  is  impossible  to  imagine  how 
there  came  to  exist  the  marvellous  space-relations  re- 


292  ULTIMATE  QUESTIONS. 

f erred  to  above.     We  are  obliged  to  recognize  these 
as  having  belonged  to  Space  from  all  eternity. 

And  then  comes  the  thought  of  this  universal  ma- 
trix itself,  anteceding  alike  creation  or  evolution, 
whichever  be  assumed,  and  infinitely  transcending 
both,  alike  in  extent  and  duration;  since  both,  if 
conceived  at  all,  must  be  conceived  as  having  had 
beginnings,  while  Space  had  no  beginning.  The 
thought  of  this  blank  form  of  existence  which,  ex- 
plored in  all  directions  as  far  as  imagination  can 
reach,  has,  beyond  that,  an  unexplored  region  com- 
pared with  which  the  part  which  imagination  has 
traversed  is  but  infinitesimal — the. thought  of  a  Space 
compared  with  which  our  immeasurable  sidereal  sys- 
tem dwindles  to  a  point,  is  a  thought  too  overwhelm- 
ing to  be  dwelt  upon.  Of  late  years  the  conscious- 
ness that  without  origin  or  cause  infinite  Space  has 
ever  existed  and  must  ever  exist,  produces  in  me  a 
feeling  from  which  I  shrink. 

(3) 


THE    END. 


SPENCER'S  SYNTHETIC  PHILOSOPHY. 

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